Hi everyone! Thank you for visiting the Hugo Public Library website! My name is Kristin Allen and I became the Library Director/Librarian of the Hugo Public Library in January of 2021. What a crazy year it has been!
Since I am not a native to the area, I thought I would share a little bit about me with a whole lot of you.
I was born and raised in Northern California. I was blessed with two loving parents and two older sisters, who, lets face it, loved me like the annoying little sister I was. In school, I was the typical “good student”, focused on my grades and steered clear of most sports. I preferred to dance. My parents enrolled me in dance classes when I was 4 years old and I didn’t stop until I was 23 years old! I loved it all…tap, lyrical, ballet, jazz, hip hop…those were the days! I was blessed to be close enough to the ocean to be able to visit it very frequently. I loved freediving with my dad and being under the sea! I also enjoyed being on my high school Color Guard team. We performed with the marching band of over 150 musicians and were a top rated band in the state of California. Go Panthers! Though, through it all, I was a book nerd at heart.
I met my husband when I was young-ish. He was a couple years older than me, so we stayed good friends for quite a few years. I focused on school and my activities and he did whatever older guys did. He also watched out for me and kept me out of trouble even when I didn’t know he was doing so. He’s a pretty good guy. We got married in 2002 (whoa!) and are still happily together. We have two kids, who are (at the time of writing this) 12 years old and 14 years old. That will change soon, again. They are the light of my life and keep me pretty busy.
Back to my story…
My husband and I were living in California and I was working for an auto insurance company in the claims division. Boy, did that give me some interesting stories to tell! My place of employment decided that California was too expensive to do business in (shocker) so they moved to Las Vegas and Colorado Springs. With the nice moving package dangling in front of us, we decided to pack up and move to Colorado Springs. I don’t do heat. A few years later I had my daughter and decided to be a stay at home mom. After I had my son, I thought it would be a good idea to go back to school and get a degree in Early Childhood Education. I completed the program with Honors and a beautiful degree that is in my closet somewhere.
We can fast forward the next few years, they aren’t very exciting. I did home daycare, was a Cubmaster for Boy Scouts of America, worked at Limon Public School, and even did a quick run at Dollar General. I started a Color Guard team in Limon and have opened up to students in Hugo and Genoa. We compete every winter in an indoor performance circuit in Denver. It is so much fun to watch these young teenagers explore their creativity and express themselves through performing arts! I learned a lot about myself in the past few years. I also learned a lot about living in a small town!
Now we get to the good stuff…
Just a couple years ago, I was rescued. Ms. Lucy in the Limon Memorial Library took me in. She taught me something new every day and had a tremendous amount of patience with me. Lucy made my dream of working in a library come true. She is an angel in disguise! Then 2020 happened, which I think we can all agree to just erase that year. Lucy still continues to mentor me, for which I am truly grateful for.
That brings me up to working here in Hugo and still working at the Limon Memorial Library, as well. Working in both places has created a bridge between the two town libraries and has made coordinating activities so much fun. I love being at the Hugo Public Library. Everyone here has been so kind and understanding during the transitions we have gone through. I am so excited to see what the future has in store for my small but mighty library!