Youths and their parents will be able to enjoy a story and stroll in a shady section of Southview Park later this summer, thanks to the efforts of a local group dedicated to education.
(PHOTO | NEW HANOVER COUNTYParks & Gardens Website)
The Logan County Branch of the American Association of University Women plan to install 20 stands around the wooded portion of the walking trail at the park they are calling Story Lane.
Melissa Marino and Colleen Bodin presented the idea to the Bellefontaine Joint Recreation District Board on Tuesday evening and got permission to install the stations in late June.
“It is our hope that Story Lane will promote reading, exercise and family bonding whereby children, parents, grandparents and others will walk along Story Lane and enjoy a family friendly book together,” according to the project objective distributed at the meeting.
Each wooden reading station will have one page of a children’s illustrated book cut out and laminated under protective covering that the children will read as they progress around the approximately 0.2-mile section of the trail, Marino said.
The first book to be displayed will be No Math at All by Benjamin Logan Elementary School reading teacher Donna Miller and books will be rotated periodically.
Marino said her mother told her about a similar project in her hometown of Dover, Ohio, and she approached the organization about it.
“I thought it would be nice if we had something like that here,” she said.
The plan is to install the stations the final week of June, the presenters said.