Storm Lake library Pokemon club bids farewell to leader Alex Stansberry

Alex Stansberry’s last Pokemon club gathering at the Storm Lake Public Library drew a crowd that showed just how far one staff member’s idea had traveled. The club has pulled anywhere from 10 to 70 participants to a meeting, and many of them have come from outside Storm Lake, turning a library program into a regional hangout for kids, parents and fans.

Stansberry, a library desk clerk and youth programs worker, is moving to Tennessee, leaving behind a club that was closely tied to one person’s energy and follow-through. A mid-level Pokemon fan who can name about 700 of the franchise’s 1,025 characters, Stansberry helped give the library a recurring program that had something unusual for a small-city youth event: staying power.

That mattered in a town like Storm Lake, where a meeting that can attract as many as 70 people is not just another activity on the calendar. It is a sign that the library has become one of the few places where a niche interest can consistently pull together families from across the county and beyond. Stansberry’s hope is that the club continues under new leadership after the move.

The farewell carried extra weight because Stansberry had already become a familiar face in Storm Lake youth programming. A 2021 graduate of Storm Lake High School, Stansberry attended Cornell College for two years and worked part-time at the library on children’s programming and Story Time. In earlier coverage, Stansberry said, “I started the Pokemon Club and I’m helping with the Summer Reading Program,” a line that now reads like a snapshot of how central the role had become.

The club itself also grew quickly. After Stansberry founded it in 2024, the library’s Poke-Ween event drew two dozen guests, giving the program a public launch that was both playful and well attended. The library says it supports about 100 programs a year through the Friends of the Storm Lake Public Library, and Stansberry’s club fit neatly into that larger calendar of community activities.

Storm Lake’s library has also positioned itself as more than a building full of books. Its city page notes Spanish-language titles and 24/7 internet access that reaches outside the building to the front lawn parking spaces, a reminder that the institution serves residents in practical ways as well as social ones. In a city of 11,269 and a county of 20,823, a youth club that can pull families together from multiple towns is more than a novelty. It is part of the community fabric Stansberry helped strengthen.