On the evening of Monday, April 1, 2024, after the regularly scheduled library Board of Trustees meeting, we celebrated our board secretary, Sandra Heiden. This year she was honored by WEMTA (Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association) with the lifetime achievement award. We were also celebrating that she received the WEMTA Award of Excellence in 2014. She was appointed to our library board by the Seymour School District and has been on our board for my entire career here. I began working at this library in November of 2002.
I am so fortunate to have Sandy as a colleague, friend, mentor and fellow professional in my life for over two decades. (Believe me, we don’t feel like it has been that long, haha.) We have witnessed and implemented the continuous changes in our field. Sandy always models to me to jump in and embrace technology and all the GOOD things it has to offer. Sandy has been there to guide me through trends. She is supportive of how we manage our library, our budget, our outreach, our mission, our vision, and our resources. What a gift it is to have this stellar mind nearby! She is talented, creative, fun and funny.
Sandy’s lifelong work aligns with our work because we realize the strength of ties between public libraries and school libraries. We are both in the business of developing lifelong readers and lifelong learners. Working cooperatively strengthens all.
Sandy has been a huge encourager to me. She was instrumental in applying for my honor of WLA librarian of the year in 2016-17. I will always be grateful to her for this as this was a career high for me! Thank you, Sandy, for everything. You are the best! I love you!