LIBRARY TRUSTEE CANDIDATES

Here are our 2024 Candidates running for Library Trustee

There are 3 Board of Trustees seat openings and there are 6 candidates running. You will find their bios below.

Vivian Street

Who will be running for her current seat…

Vivian is a proud graduate of Ramapo High School. She is the mother of one son and grandmother of 6 living in North Carolina. She has worked for the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities for over 32 years. She is currently the Rockland County Community Support Team Leader and Region 9 Coordinator for the Public Employees Federation of New York State. She has also been a Trustee in the First Baptist Church for over 15 years and a Sunday school teacher. Vivian was named a New York State Woman of Distinction by Senator Thomas Morahan. A recipient of several awards, Vivian has served on various Boards in community and civic organizations in Rockland. She served for many years as a union leader locally and State-wide. She also served on the board of the United Way of Rockland for over 4 years.

Sandra Duncan

Proud mother and grandmother of three children and four grandchildren, a woman of ambition & discipline, Sandra Duncan is the proud owner of 3K’s Hot Spot for the last two years. Born and raised in Jamaica, Sandra moved to the United States of America in 2008, where she became a citizen and immediately started impacting her community. Alongside sharing her culture with the community, Sandra devotes her time to working at Caring for Elders. “My quest in life is to serve”, says Sandra. Supporting the library in many ways has encouraged me to offer myself to serve in this aspect.

When I am elected to the Finklestein Memorial Library, I will bring more patrons to the library. Surely, they will enjoy the rich services that have been provided over the years to this community. Let’s pass the budget and have more resources. I will serve to the best of my ability.

Dr. Marie Carmel Garcon

Marie Carmel Garcon is a long time resident of Rockland. Married to Dr. Ernst Garcon for the past 29 years, they have raised two children, Dr. Caren Garcon, 27, an emergency room physician at Brookdale Hospital, Brooklyn, NY and Farrell Garcon, 24, who is completing his Master in Bioethics at Columbia University.

Dr. Garcon received her Associate Degree in Nursing from Rockland Community College in 1988. She continued her studies and graduated from Dominican University, Orangeburg, NY with her Bachelor degree in Nursing (1996); her Family Nurse Practitioner (2002) and her Doctorate in Nursing Practice from Pace University (2013).

For the past three decades, Dr. Garcon has been working effortlessly to positively influence the lives of the people she touches. She has served the Washington Heights area as a registered nurse, a family nurse practitioner, site surveyor for the Columbia University Neighborhood funds and community leader. Her mission extends to charitable work for the community and abroad especially in her native country of Haiti.

As a result, Dr. Garcon has garnered a multitude of accolades, including Nurse Practitioner of the year by the NPA, Nurse Practitioner of the week by Columbia School of Nursing, the Community Award granted by the legislation of Rockland County, the Westside Spirit Award, Falcon Award by NY Presbyterian Hospital and Nurse Hero by the New York Yankees.

In 2021, Dr. Garcon was nominated to join her esteemed colleagues at Columbia University Medical Center and was inducted in the Academy of Community and Public Service. In November of that same year, she was the guest speaker at the Indian National conference and received the Luminary award from the National Indian Nurse Practitioner Association. In January 2022, Dr. Marie Carmel Garcon received her appointment as Assistant Clinical Professor of Nursing Practice in Dental Medicine in the Columbia College of Dental Medicine (CCDM), the second Nurse Practitioner to receive this title from the institution.

Newspapers, TV and radio shows have continually reached out to her to document her journey and success. While Dr. Garcon continues to make strides in her career, her focus has never shifted from her patients, whom she always has her best interest in mind and of course her community.

Frank Dailey

Frank Dailey is a retired NYC police officer. He was elected to the Finkelstein Library board in July 2017. During his time on the board, he was involved in the recruitment of a new library director. He found the experience to be stimulating and interesting. He is excited about the plans for the future of the library, and would like to return to the board to be part of this transformation. He is confident that with him on the board, the board will be able to more quickly respond to the needs of the library. Since leaving the board, he has been an active member of the Friends of the Library. He feels that he can be more useful to the library as a Trustee to quickly and appropriately implement change. He would hope that his background and experience would make a case for his candidacy. In addition, for the past year, Frank has been employed by the Haverstraw Kings Daughters library in the circulation department. For this reason, he has gained a deeper understanding of the needs of a library and the needs of the community served by the library. He has developed a good rapport with his fellow employees, and this experience gives him more astute knowledge of the needs of a circulation department and library staff. He hopes you will consider voting for him with his unique experience as a Police Officer, as a Friend of the Library, as a Trustee, as a library employee and as a patron, he believes he has the ideal combination and breadth of knowledge for the position. He would like to thank you in advance for your consideration.

Esther Waldman

Allan Rubin

Esther Waldman is an Orthodox Jewish, educator who has worked in both Catholic and Jewish schools across NYC and Rockland County. Esther started her career young, earning a Bachelors degree from Adelphi University when she was only 19, and a masters from Pace University when she was 21. Since then, she has worked directly with students, she has directed programs, and she has presented workshops, sharing her knowledge with other educators. Her experience as a special education teacher and director of student services has shown her the important role books play and the value of building language and literacy in children. She is currently a Title I Director in New Square, where she champions for literacy enrichment for elementary school students. 
 
Esther lives in Monsey with her husband and three children. The two older children are budding bookworms, and the youngest, a young toddler, loves to eat any books he can get his hands on. She hopes to use her experience as an educator, her love of children’s literature, and her position as a library trustee, to inspire children to seek knowledge and value books as much as she does.

 

I have been a resident of the Town of Ramapo and now the Village of Chestnut Ridge for 53 years. I am a retired Architect and Construction Manager. I am currently the Deputy Chairman of the Chestnut Ridge Planning Board and have previously served as both a member and as chairman. I am presently a volunteer tutor for “Literacy Solutions” and tutor immigrants to learn and or improve their English. I also tutor those who seek to pass the US Citizen interview and become citizens. All students I have tutored for citizenship have passed the US Citizenship interview and are now US Citizens. I am an avid reader and my wife and children have utilized the library from when we first moved here when the library only existed as the small brick house at the corner of Route 59 before the new and existing library was constructed and incorporated the existing small library into the current library complex.

It would be an honor and privilege for me to serve as a trustee of the library to help in guiding it into the future.