La Mesa Mayor Mark Arapostathis was at the La Mesa Library on Feb. 9 to participate in its Career Day Storytime, along with La Mesa Police Officer Daniel Paugh.
“I wanted to do something fun for the families and community members,” said Veronica Estrada, a librarian II in charge of youth services at the library. Estrada also puts together the regular story times that are typically held Tuesday and Friday.
La Mesa Mayor Mark Arapostathis was at the La Mesa Library on Feb. 9 to participate in its Career Day Storytime, along with La Mesa Police Officer Daniel Paugh.
“I wanted to do something fun for the families and community members,” said Veronica Estrada, a librarian II in charge of youth services at the library. Estrada also puts together the regular story times that are typically held Tuesday and Friday.
Lennay Mann with her 2-year-old-son, Logan, of Encanto said, “We’ve been coming to story time since he was an infant.”
“I am excited about seeing the mayor,” said La Mesa resident, Laura Maturo with her 16-month-old daughter, Coral. “I remember my mom would bring us to the library and we would sing the same songs.”
“The sooner we read to our children,” said Arapostathis “It will guarantee they will be readers.”
Officer Paugh explained to the children what it was like to be a police officer for La Mesa. Paugh has been with the LMPD for 15 years and his current assignment is school resource officer serving 10 schools. Previously, he was a detective assigned to cover crimes against children.
A warm-up song led by Estrada and library technician, Alex Areta, focused on getting the little ones’ wiggles out. Paugh juggled the reading of “Big, Bigger, and Biggest,” by Nancy Coffelt, handing out stickers to the estimated crowd of 65 preschoolers and parents or guardians.
Classic children’s’ songs like “The Wheels on the Bus” and “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider” along with more exercises were led by Estrada and Areta to continue to get the wiggles out through-out the story time.
Arapostathis, in addition to be the mayor of La Mesa, explained his career to the children. “I also teach at the La Mesa Arts Academy,” he said.
Arapostathis read, “You are Not Small” by Anna Kang in an engaging, animated style. He then asked, by a raising up of two or three fingers, for the children to indicate how old they were. Most were two or three.
Craft time for the attendees followed the Career Day Storytime.
“We’ve had story time since we were in the other building,” said Branch Manager and Librarian III, Heather Pisani-Kristl. “This branch has been here since June 2008.” The library, run by the County of San Diego, is housed in a complex that also includes the La Mesa Police Department, the post office, and the City of La Mesa’s offices.
“We have a floating collection. Wherever a book is returned, it stays,” said Pisani-Kristl. “We get about 20 boxes a week from other locations. We also have 18 internet computers and 10 laptops.”
Library cardholders also have access to books through the San Diego Public Library. As of 2007, the San Diego County Library offers books available for transfers from San Diego State University, CSU San Marcos, University of San Diego and UCSD. This circulation route is available due to a consortium of libraries called The San Diego Circuit.
Visit: http://www.sdcl.org/ for more information.
