Carla Aubuchon, the Festus Public Library’s assistant director and youth services director, retires Friday, after working at the library for 15 years.
Aubuchon said she will miss working there, especially leading Storytime every Thursday morning.
As the Storytime leader, Aubuchon, 62, of Festus read books to young children and guides them through educational activities related to the stories. After working as a circulation assistant, she took over as Storytime leader in 2012 from Donna Royle, who retired.
Storytime sessions start at 10:30 a.m. at the library, 400 W. Main St., and each one lasts about a half hour.
The activity, for children ages 2 to 6, will continue under Aubuchon’s replacement, Melissa Lamb, who is the new assistant director and youth services director.
“(Storytime is) definitely my favorite part of the job,” Aubuchon, said prior to the start of the Jan. 2 session. “I research the stories and pick a theme for the week. Today, we’re doing the letter ‘A.’
“I researched what other libraries have done. We do two books and a couple of songs, and we also play on the board (a felt board on a stand). I will tell a story focusing on the letter ‘A.’ I’ll put characters on the board starting with the letter ‘A.’”
During the session, Aubuchon read two books – “Aliens Love Underpants” and “Step By Step,” a book about an ant. About a half dozen kids attended the session with their parents or grandparents.
The youngsters listened intently as Aubuchon read the books, sang along with her songs and answered the questions she asked about the day’s topic.
One of the songs was “The Ants Go Marching” to tie in with the “Step By Step” story.
She said the weekly Storytime crowds vary in size, but the sessions generally draw a good-sized group.
“We get a lot of homeschool families,” she said. “A lot of grandparents bring their grandchildren, and parents bring their children.”
Aubuchon said she relished seeing the youngsters each week at Storytime.
“Just seeing the enjoyment the children get out of this,” she said. “Also, seeing their development.”
Moms who brought their children to the session praised Storytime.
Kayla Lenz of Festus brought Mateo, her 3-year-old son, to the Jan. 2 session.
“He loves coming every week to see Miss Carla,” she said.
Another mother, Kayla Boyd of Festus, attended with her daughter, Rose, 4.
“Rose has been coming to Storytime for the last year,” Boyd said. “We love Miss Carla. You can tell she cares about the students. She always has fun activities.”
Lamb, 41, of Festus sat in during Aubuchon’s final Storytime sessions and said she appreciates the program Aubuchon ran for so long.
“Carla is amazing,” she said. “I have very big shoes to fill. I’m excited about the opportunity.”
Lamb came to the library from Bright Beginning Learning Center in Festus to take over Aubuchon’s position.
Aubuchon has been paid $22 an hour as the assistant director and youth services director, and Lamb will make $20.49 an hour when she takes over.
Aubuchon enjoyed all her library work
Aubuchon said she more or less fell into becoming a librarian, but quickly learned to love the job. She worked for the Festus Public Library for 15 years after getting hired in October 2009.
“I actually came from payroll administration,” she said. “I was with Haberberger Mechanical in St. Louis for 16 years. I left Haberberger in 2004 to stay home with my children.
“I had no background as a librarian at all. I was a ‘frequent flyer’ visitor at the library. I asked about volunteering. One of the librarians suggested I apply for a job.”
Aubuchon said she appreciated the opportunity to help people.
“I will really miss the patrons,” she said. “I’ll miss sharing new authors with patrons. I’ve always given them ideas. I’ll miss helping people with the computers. There are so many who need help.”
Aubuchon said she also liked helping people with a service not everyone realizes is offered at the library.
“I’ll miss doing passports,” she said. “I’ve done over 4,000 passports since I’ve been here.”
Aubuchon initiated one of the library’s more popular activities, the Touch a Truck event, which has emergency responders and others bring large vehicles to the library parking lot for youngsters to see and get inside. It is linked to the library’s Summer Reading Program.
“I started it around 2017,” she said. “When Touch a Truck first started, we had 40 or 50 kids. We had a firetruck and a city service vehicle. It grew to where we have six or seven large vehicles and more than 300 kids.”
Aubuchon, who has two grown children, said her plans for retirement include devoting more time to hobbies.
“I just really want to relax, take time for myself,” she said. “I want to get back to my hobbies – reading, sewing and crochet, and I want to learn how to do woodburning.”
Elizabeth Steffen, the library’s director, said she wishes Aubuchon well, but hates to see her leave.
“When I started here five years ago, I would have been completely lost without her,” Steffen said. “She pretty much held my hand my first two months of directing.
“A lot of people associate her as the Storytime storyteller. She’s touched a lot of lives.”
Carla Aubuchon, the Festus Public Library's Storytime leader, leads youngsters in a song on Jan. 2. Aubuchon retires on Jan. 17 after 15 years with the library, and a feature story on her will be in an upcoming Leader.