St. Charles Parish Library rebounds from Hurricane Ida, increases in-person programming

The St. Charles Parish library system has opened to more in-person activities.

Families huddled in forts reading together, older children constructing Lego masterpieces and adult friends gathering to create unique home décor – St. Charles Parish Library Assistant Director Lauren Campo Pitz said they are all a welcome sight to library employees who have missed seeing patrons in the libraries.

When the coronavirus pandemic halted in-person opportunities for the library system, Pitz said employees did everything they could to offer a full library experience via take home activities and virtual sessions.

Still, she said, it wasn’t the same.

“We are all very excited to see patrons back in the library,” Pitz said. “It’s been great to just do what we really love to do. You form a lot of relationships with the patrons who come in and it’s been great to be able to see them.”

Pitz said the summer of 2021 first started to offer a sense of normalcy in the library system’s six branches.

“Last summer we had a very successful summer,” she said. “We thought it was going to be mostly virtual, but the COVID numbers were going down and we were able to pivot to doing some things back in-person.”

Pitz said system employees usually take the month of August to regroup after the intense summer schedule.

“We were ready to hit the ground running in September but then the hurricane hit,” she said. “So that obviously pushed back our timeline.”

The library branches in Hahnville, Destrehan, Paradis and St. Rose reopened Sept. 28, with the Norco branch reopening Oct. 6.

Luling’s West Regional Library, which suffered the most damage in Hurricane Ida, remains closed. Pitz said hopes are it will reopen before the summer.

“But we’re rocking and rolling everywhere else,” she said. “We’ve got things going on for all age groups. We had a few events in the second half of October, but most of programs, including story time, started back in November.”

Pitz said library employees are thrilled to welcome more and more people each month back into the branches.

“It’s wonderful,” she said. “We had a meeting this morning and most of our supervisors at our branches were just telling us just how many more people have been coming in. It’s so wonderful to have more life back in the library. We’re so happy to be catching up with people we haven’t seen in a while.”

Some programs the library system has held since reopening after Hurricane Ida include Family Reading Forts at the St. Rose Branch, Lego Club at the East Regional Library, story time and Art Squad at the East Regional Library and Fall Wall Plaque craft for adults at the Norco Branch.

Pitz said planning for summer programming will begin in the next few weeks.

For more information on library offerings, visit the system’s Facebook or website at myscpl.org.

 

About Monique Roth 919 Articles
Roth has both her undergraduate and graduate degree in journalism, which she has utilized in the past as an instructor at Southeastern Louisiana University and a reporter at various newspapers and online publications. She grew up in LaPlace, where she currently resides with her husband and three daughters.

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