Sean C. Morgan
By Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Friends and family of Sandi Leonard, who has been known for her costumed storytelling at the library for decades, threw a retirement party for her Saturday morning at the Jim Riggs Community Center.
Leonard, a library assistant, retired from the Sweet Home Public Library Sept. 16 after working there as paid staff for 20 years, since August, 1997. Prior to her employment there, she had volunteered through the Friends of the Library.
“I love books and especially children,” Leonard said. “I was a home-school mom, so I used the library as a reference a lot.”
Leonard also is an avid reader. Libraries have been a part of her life all her life, she said. When she was a child, her father was a museum curator. Below the museum was a library, and on Saturdays, that’s where she spent the day.
“I’ve always loved books,” Leonard said, so it was natural for her to start helping out and work with the Friends of the Library.
“I’ve always wanted to have a library be a place that children especially want to come,” she said. “I want books to come alive for them. I want reading not to be laborious – but fun.”
To that end, every week, she hosted story time, putting on a costume and reading to children. That was followed by crafts and activities.
“I could bring in anything,” Leonard said. If the story was about ducks, she would bring in duck eggs, and children would learn why they don’t crack when the mama duck sits on them. They would place books on top of the eggs to demonstrate.
She played a key role in expanding the Summer Reading Program.
“They’re so much into electronics these days,” Leonard said of current youngsters. “I wanted to enhance the actual hands-on programs.
“I would do anything I could to encourage kids to read during the summer. If kids would read for fun, that would help them in their school work. That would encourage them in their whole life.”
She started the reading sheets and logs and associated activities.
She misses story time, she said. “I miss the kids and the families and the patrons. It’s hard to leave the library.”
She will always love story time and making books come alive for kids, she said. She doesn’t have any definite plans, but she may yet return to doing story time for home-school groups and schools.
Leonard has been married to Joe Leonard for 40 years. They moved to Sweet Home in 1978 when Joe Leonard became pastor at Foster Baptist Church. They have nine adult children, four sons and five daughters; and they have 17 grandchildren.
In retirement, she plans to spend more time with her grandchildren, help with her grandchildren’s home schooling and keep working on her two-acre organic farm.