Ideally, each of us would awaken with a smile, eager to get to work doing what we love. Those who are lucky, like Amber Wyzik, do exactly that.
On April 25, Wyzik sent her daughters Kaya, 10, and Piper, 7, off to Kelly Lane School before embarking on a new journey as Granby’s Director of Library Services. She couldn’t be happier!
A Granby native whose parents and grandparents walked these streets before her, Amber Lansing Wyzik was an “Army brat” whose father was transferred to California when she was in kindergarten. “When I was in third grade, we moved back East to a home in Southwick, Mass., and I graduated high school there,” Wyzik says.
With her sight set on a career as a preschool teacher, Wyzik attended Westfield State University, graduating with a degree in elementary education. But while in college, an ad for a children’s programmer at Avon Public Library led her to a masters’ degree in Information and Library Science (MILS) from Southern Connecticut State University.
Following graduation, she spent five years at Avon Public Library, four as manager of children and teen services, before moving on to Granby’s Kelly Lane School, where she served as media specialist for 11 years.
“When my husband Aaron and I decided we wanted to buy a house in 2010, I was working in Avon and he was at a legal technology company in Southwick,” Wyzik says. “My mom Linda had moved back to Granby, my cousin lives in town, and it just made sense to settle here.”
But life isn’t all about one’s job, especially for a mother of two active children. Wyzik, who enjoys crocheting, paper art and gardening, naturally includes Kaya and Piper in her pastimes. Over the past winter, the family took up skiing. “We went to Sundown with neighbors, took lessons, and we all love it,” she says.
The transition from Kelly Lane to the GPL has been smooth, Wyzik says, thanks to the support of both her colleagues at the school and the “welcoming and patient” library staff.
Asked what, if any, changes are ahead for the library, Wyzik said the Granby community is growing, and her goal is to expand programs to keep Granby residents in Granby. “This library is the hub of the community, and I want it to stay that way,” she says. “It helps people to get out, learn, make new friends. I want to make the library even more comfortable and inviting. I’ll see what’s working and what people want for the future.
“Someone said to me the other day, ‘You have a dream job.’ I think I do!”