SWAMPSCOTT — If you’ve ever been to the Public Library or volunteered at Seaglass Village, you probably know a very familiar face around town: Alyce Deveau, who has carved out a legacy of serving the community by being there whenever someone needs help.
Deveau spoke with The Daily Item and went in-depth about her background, her time as a teacher in Lynn schools and rising up the ranks of the library, before moving onto Seaglass Village, a nonprofit organization aimed at helping older people live independently.
She has now retired from the role of Executive Director, though she’ll be staying around as a volunteer for those who may need her help.
Deveau began by saying that she first started working for the town in 1983. “I started at the library part-time as a desk person. I worked there as a teenager all the way into college,” she said.
After college, she became a teacher and taught English and reading at Lynn Pickering Junior High School and Lynn Classical. “I taught English at first, but then I switched over to reading. … I was always on the literature side of life,” she said.
Deveau explained that by working in the library, you’re directly involved with the community.
“I started part time, then went onto a longer part-time spot, and then I became Head of Circulation before I was the Library Director. I held probably every job at the library, including custodian sometimes,” she said. “I think because, working in the public sector and as a school teacher, once you work in the public sector, you get involved in public activities.”
Deveau described her time running the library as “hectic, busy, and I loved it.”
Aside from leading the library, she also started different kinds of community-oriented groups, such as knitting and language-based groups to help individuals learn English.
“We met every Tuesday and we’d sit at a table and just talk. … I didn’t speak Russian or Italian, so they had to speak English to try and help them, it was just great,” she said. “To this day, they still send me birthday cards.
“I love books and I love people. I met so many nice people working there, everyone from the staff and the patrons, I loved working in the library,” she said. “I’d probably still be there today if it weren’t for COVID-19.”
She elaborated, noting that once the pandemic hit, she wanted to focus on her personal safety. The library put up glass shields, bought masks, faceguards and hand sanitizer, and moved people around to maximize the six-feet distance rule.
“It just wore me out,” Deveau explained. “It really did, and once we were through COVID, I decided that I couldn’t do it anymore. I was done after that.”
After leaving the library, she set her sights on Seaglass Village, which she had been a part of since its inception in 2021. She always liked people, she said, which helped fuel her desire to volunteer later in life.
She explained how she first got involved with the nonprofit.
“We had a committee, and we used to meet during COVID on Zoom. (Director of Aging Services) Heidi Whear talked about this idea of the concept of Seaglass Village,” she said, “and I thought, ‘Wow, that sounds like such a good idea,’ and Heidi (Whear) got a committee together, which I was on.
“We talked a lot on Zoom for a couple of years, and then we started meeting at peoples’ houses, and that’s how we started,” she said. “They needed an Executive Director, someone who would be here in the office — and I had been talking about retiring — so Heidi (Whear) said, ‘Why don’t you do that?’”
Deveau said she was afraid of retiring after having worked for so long. “This seemed like the perfect transition, to go from the library to Seaglass Village.”
Since the nonprofit’s beginning, Deveau had proudly watched it blossom.
“We’ve been able to help so many people who basically are home-bound because they can’t drive anymore,” she said. “We can get them places, get them to activities, but we also do things like home visits to make peoples’ lives better — and that’s the whole point — just to make their lives better when they’re living at home.”
Volunteers help out on a need-basis, she explained, rather than it being every day.
“We post things that people need (like rides) online, and for those who signed up to be a driver, they might see the post and sign up for it,” Deveau said.
Deveau said an encouraging element of her work is being there to help others.
“One of the things we don’t do is shovel snow in the winter — but I made an arrangement with the Swampscott High School and the Marblehead National Honor Society, and we arranged for someone to go and shovel the walkways safely.”
Deveau said she learned that “when you help people, it pays you back more than it does for the person being helped.”
Though she’s retired from her role as Executive Director, Deveau plans to remain as a volunteer to continue serving community members.
Anne Quagrello, who was named the current Executive Director, expressed that she has big shoes to fill.
“It’s almost impossible to understand all the things she carried in her head and that she transferred out into the community so beautifully and so kindly,” Quagrello said. “I’m hoping I can fill those big shoes.”
President of Seaglass Village Izzi Abrams said she worked with Deveau at the library for many years and introduced her to the nonprofit.
“If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be standing here. … She’s the kind of person who likes to help, and I was hooked,” Abrams said.
Linda Garber, who is on the Board of Directors and head of the Events Team, described Deveau as “the heart and face of Seaglass Village.”
Whear said that Seaglass Village “couldn’t have had a better first executive director.”
