The Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library and the Rec & Parks Department celebrates the fifth year of the popular community StoryWalk path at Mantle Lake Park and returns this year with enhancements. We are grateful to the crew at the Forum, who are supportive of the project and offered to install permanent posts in the ground. Also, one post is dedicated to a new QR code full of helpful information about events in our city.
Temporary art installations are dynamic and experimental, but permanent art installations offer stability, cultural continuity, and long-lasting impact on communities. We are overjoyed at the improvements.
If you are not aware of the StoryWalk project, it is a 1,760-foot path lined with individual pages of a book on posts so that as you walk the path, you read a page of the story at a time, finishing at the end of the pathway. It’s a fantastic way to encourage outdoor engagement, to enjoy literature with a trusted grown-up, and to enrich family life with visual arts.
The Vermont library that is credited with starting the StoryWalk says about this literary and outdoor project: “StoryWalk was created in 2007 by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, Vermont in collaboration with former staff member Rachel Senechal, and is a registered service trademark of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. StoryWalks now exist across the U.S. and worldwide in 13 countries.”
Our book selection for May is by Maine author and illustrator Neesha Hudson and is titled, “The Best Flower Ever!” With watercolors and pencil art, story characters explore feelings of frustration and jealousy and learn to move from competition to care and cooperation — an opportunity for a true teachable moment between grown-up and child within the beauty of our parks and immersed in nature. We think this is a winning combination of physical activity, stories, and learning to communicate.
Within the StoryWalk Project, we encourage sharing stories, reading, and a love for literacy but it is much deeper than that. We build a sense of place and a sustainable art project in our community that art enthusiasts, nature lovers, park visitors and book lovers gather to enjoy. We believe it has a long-lasting impact on our community.
We’d like to thank Gene Cronin from Rec & Parks, Tyler Clark and crew from The Forum, and our City Manager Tyler Brown for their ideas, installation, and for our new QR code, enhancing access to information about other great projects and events within our city.
If you would like to create your own StoryWalk, we can help guide you through the registered trademark rules that apply to StoryWalk. Send us a message on online social media or give us a call at 207-764-2571 and we are eager to assist and see your own path of stories.
Sonja Eyler is librarian at the Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library in Presque Isle. She can be reached at 764-2571 or via email at pimelibrarian@gmail.com.
