Daughters of Wisdom, USA Province

Congratulations to Sr. Jackie Ayotte, DW, and Long Lake Public Library of St. Agatha, Maine, for again being recognized by the Next Generation Foundation of Little Deer Isle with an Evie Award of $5,000 for the Library's Research and Archive Center. This was the last donation made by Next Generation as they dissolved their foundation this year.

If you wanted to read

Before 2006, in St. Agatha, Maine, and surrounding areas, the Maine State Book Mobile was your only option if you wanted a Library book or other reading materials. And with limited resources, you had to choose books within your age group and were restricted as to how many books you could borrow. The only Library was in the high school. That was until the idea of a Library was presented to the community.

To meet what many saw as a great need, interested community members started a volunteer library committee that included Daughters of Wisdom, Sr. Jackie Ayotte, DW, and Sr. Joan Ayotte, DW. They began to share ideas with like-minded community members in 2006. By 2007, a nine-member volunteer Board of Directors was formed and began to set a plan to organize details to establish a library to make it self-sustainable. "The Long Lake Public Library was born of concerns to meet the needs of the youngest and the most elderly. Regular reading programs, guest lecturers, and other activities will provide a positive respite during our four seasons. Finally, our veracious readers will be assuaged." said board members." Sr. Jackie Ayotte, DW, was named the first board president in 2006, and soon after that, in 2008, Sr. Joan Ayotte, DW, became a board member. And from that point on, they served as co-librarians. At this point in their ministries, both Sr. Jackie and Sr. Joan were long retired as educators and into new ministries, learning new skills and volunteering in organizations to provide services to seniors in the community.

Sr. Jackie, 83, is the last person from her hometown, St. Agatha, Maine, to enter the Daughters of Wisdom in 1959. Her sister, Sr. Joan, 85, entered the congregation in 1957. By the early 70s, both returned to St. Agatha, Maine, where they spent most of their careers in education ministries. Later after retirement, while volunteering in lay ministry and healthcare service they helped to establish and staff a community library in their hometown. Sr. Jackie served as volunteer President of the Long Lake Public Library Board from March 2006 to January 2023 and is still a Board member. Sr. Joan Ayotte, DW, was on the Board from 2008 to January 2020 and served as Secretary from 2011 to January 2018.

Finding a place

Long Lake Public Library found some space in Montfort Heights, which provided low-income senior housing and close access to high-quality medical care for area residents. Originally it was the Daughters of Wisdom's Queen of Peace Hall and served as an addition to Notre Dame de la Sagesse Convent. The convent was also a Catholic school for day and boarding students and a hospital in the 1940s. Closed in 1966, it remained unoccupied, was sold, and then finally repurchased in 1979 by local entrepreneurs James M Chamberland and Francis Morin. Sr. Jackie Ayotte, DW, shared, "When James Chamberland bought the convent, a committee was organized to look at how it could be used. In visiting the convent living room with its picture windows toward the lake and shelves against the back wall, someone said, "This would be perfect for a library."

In 1904, the first Daughters of Wisdom to arrive from France in the United States at St. Agatha, Maine, were superior Mother Marie Therese, Sr. St Anselme, a catechist; Sr. Victorine de St. Francois, a nurse; and Sister Euphrone, a housekeeper. By 1905 they had established Notre Dame de la Sagesse Convent. It served as a hospital, day school, and boarding school for students across New England. In 1940, a new building was constructed, Queen of Peace Hall, which later became a housing complex named Montfort Heights. The original convent served as St. Agatha High School until it was demolished in 1968.

By 1982 Chamberland and Morin resurrected the building into a complex for elderly housing and renamed it Montfort Heights. In 1997 Long Lake Regional Health Center was established in Montfort Heights as a regional site for Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent, Me. And then, in 2007, the goal of raising 250,000 to redesign a vacant laundry/storage room into a community library garnered widespread support from the St. Agatha community.

Becoming official

When Long Lake Public Library was about to become official in 2007, Deputy State Librarian Linda Lord of the Maine State Library in Augusta said, "I thought I knew a force of nature until I met Jackie Ayotte." Sr. Jackie was checking to see if all the requirements were met in order to be fully integrated into the network of libraries in Maine and qualify as a state and federal entity. Lord said it was an "outstanding achievement for a community" and all the conditions were met to become an official library. She went on to say, "A lot of libraries don't have nearly the commitment I see here today." Northern State Maine Library Consultant Valerie Osborne of Bangor said, "It’s an incredible achievement not easily or willingly attempted these days. This Library is producing a wide range of services. The programming done as an extension of the Library, like early childhood education, is also noteworthy. They did everything right.”

Pictured above from (left to right), in the first photo is Joyce Crosby holding a rendering of the proposed changes to the original building. In the second photo, Sr. Jackie Ayotte, on the left, surveys the progress of demolition with Denyse Michaud and Janice LaBrie. In the photo on the far right, Sr. Joan Ayotte and Terri Ouelette set up shelves and organize space.

Indeed, it was a community effort, and its members that came together every step of the way to make it happen. Town Manager Ryan Pelletier said, “When Jackie first floated the idea of a library, there were some skeptics.” When he found out who was on the Board of Directors, he said, “I knew there would be no stopping them.”

Filling the shelves

The first shelves were purchased and filled with purchased and donated books. Among those were books from the Acadian Heritage Council and the Cole Land Transportation Museum in Bangor, Maine. And then, a voluminous start-up that filled half a room came through the 3,000-book (80 boxes) collection of George Neavoll in 2006. Neavoll was a private book collector and former Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram editor. The local Ouellette Farms Transport moved the donated books and shelving from Portland to St. Agatha. Today the Library continues to receive donations of books, many from local authors. For other resources, it is linked to the Maine State Library and has access to programs such as MSLN, the internet, Marvel databases, interlibrary loans, and Maine Infonet. Sr. Jackie said, “Throughout this project, so many people came to help, and this volunteer involvement has continued to this day. We have four library shelves documenting our history.”

Pictured below are the shelves of the Family Genealogy section, which includes American and Canadian families, research books, and a set of Dictionnaire Généalogique des Familles Canadiennes. There are also Journals of Northern Maine Rural Culture, High School yearbooks, and local history, including that of the Daughters of Wisdom. The Ste-Agathe Historical Society keeps family albums at the library for nine months during the year while their Preservation Center is closed, and the Library website has 40 years of their yearly Newsletter.

Paying the bills

Since the beginning, the support and participation of the St. Agatha community and regions around Long Lake during annual fundraisers have paid the bills and purchased necessary items. Library programs are supported by grants from the Maine Humanities Council, The Rose and Samuel Rudman Foundation, Maine Community Foundation, State Library Grants, AARP, E-Rate, Next Generation Foundation, and Networkmaine. Over the years, financial support has come through the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, which gave the initial $50,000 needed to design the first library room. In 2010, they donated $50,000 more for the library endowment. Maine resident Leo Albert donated $20,000, and Sylvio Albert, a native of St. Agatha, donated $10,000 in 2022 for the Genealogy program.

Setting Foundational Goals

Since 2006, the Library Board set its fundraising goals to include money to allow them to invest in an endowment to secure its future sustainability. Through yearly fundraisers, generous donations, memorial donations, and grant writing for projects and activities, the Library has accomplished that and more. Funded through investments, they were recently able to employ a librarian.

Pictured above in the photo on the left are Library Board Members Sr. Jackie Ayotte, Terry Ouellette, Deb Lavoie, Nicole Beaulieu, Denise Ouellette, Karen Plourde, Francine Lagasse, and Sr. Joan Ayotte. The wall beyond the picture is a military exhibit created and painted by Linda Dufour Ayotte and presented at the room's opening in 2015. Long Lake Public Library’s librarian, Lauren Paradis, is pictured on the right. Behind her are the shelves with the Family Genealogy, and in front of her is the history section.

Expansion in 2014

When Long Lake Regional Health Center was vacated in 2014, there was a strong community interest in expansion to allow for a place to research and preserve family and historical records. That’s when plans to repurpose the health center’s 1,200 square feet into a room for archives, research, and community gatherings were put on the books. The reality was made possible by the award of a $50,000 Next Generation Foundation grant written by Sr. Jackie Ayotte, DW. It enabled the one-room Library to expand and the reconfiguration of space to create the Research and Archives Center.

Below is part of how the transformation took place. Pictured on the left is the mutual wall of the library that is open at both ends and leads to the research section and gives access to Montfort Heights and the Librarian’s apartment.

Today the completed space accommodates all it set out to and more. It has become a significant activity center for St. Agatha and a place to discuss topics of interest for growth in the community. Working with the local historical society, it serves the Long Lake areas of St. Agatha, Sinclair, Cross Lake, Lake Shore Drive, and Frenchville. It hosts workshops and classes to teach people how to research their family roots, and with books bought by the Rudman Family Grant, there is an extensive collection for children and adults.

The Evie Award in 2023

In a letter dated January 26, 2023, to Sr. Jackie Ayotte, DW, Next Generation Foundation grant administrators wrote, “The overall success rate of our grantees is a whopping 96% which we attribute to strong boards as much as inspired leaders like you. As we followed your grant and 124 others that were completed as planned, we noticed a few standouts, and your Library is resoundingly one of them …the Long Lake Public Library was chosen for an Evie Award in recognition of your competent administration of the grant project and your dedication…”

The letter included a check for $5,000. It was the last grant given by the Next Generation Foundation of Little Deer Isle, Maine, as they dissolved their foundation this year. The Board has yet to determine how to use this money to enhance the Library's services further.

Trust God

Sr. Jackie said, “We have often heard, trust God and work as if success depended on you. This worked for us with the help of so many who wanted to help and share our hope and are part of this library accomplishment. Joan and I are greatly honored that God has given us the health, courage, energy, and wisdom to accomplish this very special ministry that is a tribute to the Daughters of Wisdom who served before us and to our parents, Lawrence and Irene Albert Ayotte, who instilled in us a love of God, family, neighbor, and community.

We ask for blessings and Wisdom to all who enter these library doors.

Born a raised in St. Agatha, Maine, Sr. Jackie added, “Our father and mother witnessed to us as children a sense of justice and trust in God that never left us. Both had a deep respect for family and the people that surrounded them. They were always ready to help and encouraged their children to do the same.

Being from this town and being an educator was an important factor that motivated us to do what we could to help our town prosper.

As I look through all that was and continues to be accomplished in the Library, I am in awe of what we accomplished, and I realize the power of God’s grace that has been so present to us from the beginning to now. Trusting that it would work out if this Library was meant to be. Our board members had a focus and determination to do what needed to be done to succeed. Joan and I agreed to be the persons on site, leading, following up, and coordinating the daily activities.

From the beginning, we were in contact with the Maine State Library, doing all we could to work with their written standards, internet connections, getting advice from their consultants, and so much more. We followed up and did our best to respond when action needed to be taken.”

When the 50,000 grant was awarded in 2014, the Next Generation Foundation wrote in a social media post, “At the tippy top of Maine, a group has established a library in a convent converted into low-income housing. We were at first puzzled why the librarian was living in the Library, until we visited and saw that, yes, the librarian’s modest home was within the space allocated to the Library, and she pays rent to the Library. The succession plan for Jackie Ayotte involves the ability of the next librarian to have housing, and their grant from us will allow them to expand and upgrade the library space, in particular improving resources for genealogical research. We commend Long Lake Public Library on their innovative and resourceful approach to creating a library in a town that never had one.”

And that embodies the spirit of the Daughters of Wisdom: come into a need, establish a path to a solution, grow an idea supported through action, see it through to a sustainable future, and pass it on to the next generation to continue the recycling of life.

Long Lake Public Library recognized by the Next Generation Foundation of Little Deer Isle