Building Maintenance Assistant Randy Gavette has spent the last 40 years at Finger Lakes Technical and Career Center building and maintaining a multitude of things: furniture, classrooms, landscapes, exteriors, and, most importantly, relationships.
His role at FLTCC encompasses many jobs — cleaner, landscaper, mover, fixer, builder, electrician, snow plower, all depending on what the day and the weather present to him — and he approaches each day with a fond appreciation for the varietyof interactions that it provides.
“What I love most is the people. You’ve got to deal with the secretaries out there,” he joked, jerking a thumb toward the main office, “but other than that, it’s a pretty great place to be. It’s rewarding when someone says ‘Thank you’ because you feel like you’re really helping them.”
In 1980, Randy moved with his family to Stanley and he’s lived in the area ever since. Living just about three miles away from FLTCC, Randy attended FLTCC as a teenager in the Multi-Occ (multi-occupational) Program (since discontinued). It was there that he learned how to work with his hands and appreciate the tangible, physical results of his work.
He enjoys the respect, trust and authority that comes with the role and the years he’s put into it. Building relationships has been at the core of his work, and the teachers, staff and students who work with him know they can count on him to solve just about any problem.
“I do anything and everything they ask me to do,” Randy said. “Just this week, it was electrical work, then going outside and helping the groundskeeper, and helping cleaners move furniture now that school is out. I enjoy that it’s different every day.”
After 40 years, retirement is on the horizon, though Randy’s fairly noncommittal about setting a firm timeline for that.
There’s a garden at home waiting on him, bursting with tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, summer squash, potatoes and a load of garlic he swears he never actually planted. His wife grows a flower garden filled with zinnias and butterflies, there’s ducks and chickens that dominate his yard, and he’d love to find time to work on projects around the house that are calling his name.
“I’ve got two more years, maybe more,” he said. “I’ve been here 40 years. I enjoy it though. It’s a great place to work; I really feel like I can help people here.”