The Sarah Hull Hallock Free Library in Milton honored Gael Appler Jr. on Sunday for his work on numerous library construction projects over the years.

Before an audience of family and friends, Mary Beth King, president of the library’s Board of Trustees, presented Appler with the Pat Russo Award. He is the sixth recipient of the award.

King said Pat Russo served 20 years on the Marlboro school board and was a Catholic instructional teacher and a Cub Scout den mother. Russo was also a longtime library trustee, King said.

“After she passed in 2018, this award was created to honor her and to honor those who have succeeded her for their dedication and commitment, not only to the library but to the community and to their service as well,” King said.

King described Appler as “a carpenter, artisan, craftsman and a very talented furniture maker.”

“Our town has benefited and our library in particular from his skill set,” she said.

She credited Appler for his vision in remodeling the library’s interior and the addition known as the annex. She said he built the circulation desk by himself, replaced a front window that had let rainwater leak into the basement and renovated two bathrooms. King also revealed that Appler met his future wife, Corissa “Cori” Giansante, as children at a preschool story hour at the library.

When King told Appler about the award, he said, “This library means a lot to me and holds a special place in my heart.” King responded, “I really believe it does.”

King presented Appler with a pilsner cup inscribed “Gael Appler, Sarah Hull Hallock Free Library, the Pat Russo Award November 8, 2026.”

Appler said some of his first memories are in the building, where his mother took him and his siblings for story hour.

“Supposedly it’s where I met my wife, but I don’t remember that; I was pretty young,” he said.

He said his Cub Scout meetings were held in a very small room in the basement, and that as a middle school student he mowed the library’s lawn with a push mower.

“My childhood revolved around a little library with a big heart, and when the annex was being planned and built, I was a kid,” Appler said. “The street fairs and the fund-raisers and forward thinkers like Patricia Russo went against the grain; they thought outside the box, and they realized the need for space for a community meeting room, for more books and research and more room for future Cub Scout meetings. I also re-member Pat Russo was president of the School Board when I graduated from high school, and she handed me my diploma.”

Appler said he is paid for most of his hours, but “all of the extras and the change orders, I put on my volunteer list.” He recalled that while building the circulation desk, “me and my crew moved every book shelf so many times; it was incredible. I don’t know who else you could get to move them, but I’m glad we were there.”

Appler concluded his remarks by saying that time at the library had shown him it is the true community hub.

“We’ve seen businesses here in the hamlet come and go while generation after generation always flock to this building,” he said. “May I recommend anyone wishing to serve their community with positive energy to join your library boards, your volunteer fire department, Lions Club, be on the Conservation Advisory Committee, the Recreation Committee and the Milton Landing Committee and coach a youth sport, because there are endless ways to volunteer for your community. The more volunteers the community has, the more the community thrives. Marlborough is rich with generational volunteers, and I am honored and humbled to be the recipient of this year’s Patricia Russo Award. Thank you.”

Town Supervisor Scott Corcoran pointed to Appler and called him “the picture of volunteerism.”

“You aren’t going to find a person that would willingly volunteer for almost anything to do with Marlborough and especially the hamlet of Milton,” Corcoran said. “This guy steps up each and every day. He’s an awesome person, and I’m glad to have him as my deputy supervisor and as my right-hand man.”

Michael Hall knows Appler through volunteer activities in town, including the Milton Landing project. Hall said the inside of the library “is much better than it used to be 20 years ago.”

“There’s been a lot of work that Gael has done to make this library a better place,” Hall said.

Jerry Wein got to know Appler during the initial rehabilitation of the north pier at Milton Landing. Wein and his wife, Rosemary, secured grants that were used to evaluate and repair the south pier. Wein also hired Appler to create an office in the upper portion of his garage, “turning a completely unusable space into a beautiful office, beyond anything I could have imagined.”

Tim Lawton said he met Appler after moving to town in 2004.

“When you start getting involved in community events, you can’t avoid Gael Appler,” Lawton said.

When the town bought the waterfront property, then-Supervisor Al Lanzetta invited Lawton, Appler, Chip Kent and others to serve on a committee to plan development of the site.

“So I’ve been working with Gael since then, a long time, 17 years,” Lawton said. “Vol-unteerism in this town is learned early, and it’s one of the tenets, I think, of Milton at the very least; you work in the community and take part in it.”

Ardis Ketterer recalled Appler and Cori coming to the library as children and later having both as students at Marlboro Middle School, where Gael played saxophone and Cori played flute. Ketterer said the award is well deserved for all he has done for the library.

Cori Appler said the couple is “very excited and honored” and loves the library “so much.”