NorthEast-Millerton Library welcomes new staff members
Teacher and student are happily reunited at the NorthEast-Millerton Library, with retired Webutuck Elementary School teacher Lynn Buckley joining her former second grade student Avery Wickwire as they assume their new jobs, she as youth services coordinator and he as library clerk. 
Photo by Rhiannon Leo-Jameson

NorthEast-Millerton Library welcomes new staff members

MILLERTON — With all the gifts of donations and grants the NorthEast-Millerton Library received this year, none are more welcome than the two human ones, who have decked the halls there by their very presence.

The first, Avery Wickwire, has been learning the ropes and providing a welcoming face behind the front desk in his role as library clerk since Oct. 18.

The second, much-loved retired Webutuck Elmentary School teacher Lynn Buckley, has agreed to take the position of youth services coordinator beginning on Tuesday, Jan. 10, when the library reopens following a week-long break starting Friday, Dec. 30.

About Wickwire, library director Rhiannon Leo-Jameson said: “Avery has been doing a great job for us. He’s a quick study and very real asset. He has a nice touch with all our patrons. We’re lucky he has joined us.”

Wickwire, a full-time first-year visual arts major at Dutchess Community College, is aiming toward an eventual transfer to SUNY New Paltz and a career in graphic design. He has found the library’s hours to be a perfect fit, as he is able to schedule his studies around the library’s needs.

A reader since a young age, he spent a good deal of time at the library before the pandemic slowed his visits. He said, “I read many, many books from here, and I don’t plan to stop doing that.”

With a wide variety of tasks, people are at the top of the list of his favorites. He said, “I like all the interaction, and especially, it’s very fun to just be around when the story hour is going on. That’s very entertaining.”

In the ways of small town coincidences everywhere, it’s not surprising that Wickwire and his new counterpart in the children’s area are already well-acquainted, as Buckley was his second grade teacher.

Remembering her well, he said: “She was very nice. I guess the best way to describe it was she had the mindset — and still very much does — of “If you respect me, I will be respectful of you. So the classroom was a very nice classroom in the sense that it just had a very kind and respectful atmosphere.” He said that as her student, going to school “never felt like a chore. I was happy to be there every day.”

And although she has not yet officially begun new duties, Buckley is no stranger to the library’s young patrons and their families, even those who might not have been lucky enough to spend time in her classroom. Since she retired, Buckley has volunteered with the library, providing a very popular after school science program.

Additionally,  following the summer departure of long-time youth services coordinator Kristin  McClune, Buckley “sat in” as the story time reader for the youngest members of the community while the library searched high and low for a replacement with just the right qualifications.

The task sounds as though it should have been an easy one with such a perfect fit for the job on hand, but Buckley was a bit hesitant at first to take the high-energy position. She finally agreed to step up her involvement.

Leo-Jameson said: “We couldn’t be more thrilled to have Mrs. Buckley working for us on a regular basis. She is a very gifted educator who has a genuine way with children. She is able to reach even the most reluctant little patron and bring them into the fold.”

With the months-long search to fill these two key positions finally at an end, Leo-Jameson added a note of thanks to the group of volunteers who have helped to keep the library running smoothly.

While they made it look easy, she noted that it was something of a strain, and so all will take a well-earned break with the library closing for a week at 3 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 30, and reopening on Tuesday, Jan. 10. No books need to be returned during that period and interlibrary loans will not be available for pickup until the reopening. For more information, call 518-789-3340.

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