TAUNY, Traditional Arts in Upstate New York, recently welcomed new members to its Board of Directors.

They include Carol Coakley, Jane Desotelle, LeAnn Holland, Romeyn Prescott, Valerie White and Peter Wyckoff.

Coakley grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs and moved to Canton in 1978. She is well known for her involvement in the family hardware business in Canton and Saranac Lake. Her early career was in nursing, and she worked as a prepared childbirth instructor. Over the years she has been on the board of the Friends of the Canton Free Library, Canton Day Care Center, and Grasse River Heritage. She enjoys gardening, travel, and keeping up with her daughters and granddaughters.

Desotelle has a longtime affiliation with TAUNY through her holiday wreath and craft projects and more recently, through a 'grow and tell' project. She grew up in Plattsburgh, where she helped her parents raise and sell gladioli and berries from their garden. She is the founder of Underwood Herbs in Plattsburgh as well as the Plattsburgh Botanical Sanctuary, an educational garden with hundreds of plants. She also is involved with the Adirondack Farmer's Market Cooperative.

Holland of Pierrepont is Assistant Professor of Education and the Coordinator for the Graduate Leadership Programs at St. Lawrence University. Born into a family of talented seamstresses and craftspeople, she learned textile and fiber arts as a child. Her first teaching job was as a Community Education art instructor in Minnesota at age 13 which launched her lifelong research interest in environmental and informal learning experiences from painting to distance hiking and recently knitting.

Prescott, Keeseville, works for SUNY as an Information Technology administration and support professional. He moved back to his hometown of Keeseville after living many years in Potsdam where he held several non-profit board memberships. He has a B.A. in English Writing from SUNY Potsdam, is a board member of the Keeseville Free Library, and volunteers at the Anderson Falls Heritage Society Museum. As a musician he enjoys practicing piano, banjo, guitar, and trumpet.

White grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania and lived in Maine and Colorado before setting roots in the North Country. She has been the youth services specialist at the Canton Free Library for over two decades, is an avid Nordic skier, gardener, food preserver, and a newly impassioned ice dye artist. Over the years she has been involved with TAUNY through her garden projects and her presentation of children's literature.

Wyckoff grew up in the Finger Lakes area of New York, came to Canton in 1971 to attend St. Lawrence University, and decided to stay. He lives with his wife Kathy near the Waterman Hill area in the town of Pierrepont. Pete ran his own residential carpentry business for 35 years, and still uses those skills to volunteer at his church and other not-for-profits in the Canton area. Pete and Kathy own a camp on Lake Ozonia where Pete can often be found on the water with a fishing rod in his hand.