Lynn Montague, Sun Prairie Public Library
The Sun Prairie Public Library, through WiLS Ideas to Action Funds, is providing an opportunity for the entire community to engage in Story Walks which promote literacy, community and family engagement, physical health, and mental well-being. Diverse picture books, book chapters, poetry, and short stories are deconstructed and laid out along an accessible path so participants can experience the story as they stroll along. The initial plan for Sun Prairie’s Story Walk was delayed and its installation was not completed until Fall 2020.
So far, we have received wonderful feedback from the community about its location and accessibility, since it is near an elementary school (technically on school property) and borders a sidewalk. A comment that we have heard a few times is how much people enjoy the additional actions and activities that we put with every page and panel displayed on the Story Walk. This was always our intent, but it’s caused us to slow down and be very intentional about those actions since they are clearly being noticed and appreciated.
So far, we have received wonderful feedback from the community about its location and accessibility, since it is near an elementary school (technically on school property) and borders a sidewalk.
We were able to purchase a large scale laminator through the grant to really get our Story Walk panel-making abilities up and running. Unfortunately, it took much longer to get the laminator than anticipated, so this has been a slow process. We finally received it at the end of 2020 and are now learning all the ins and outs of a professional laminator. While we have a few titles already on hand and deconstructed, we are in the midst of choosing many more that will work well with the aforementioned actions and activities. Then we will get to work laminating and constructing!
The Parks and Recreation Department has partnered with us and we have grand plans to get Sun Prairie Story Walks installed in parks all over Sun Prairie! They are going to help us figure out a plan and construct permanently installed frames in which we can change out the stories. We are excited to get moving on this next step!
So far, our project has stayed pretty true to the original plan in scope though the timeline is off. Everything is taking longer than anticipated. Some of this can be attributed to the pandemic, and some of this can be attributed to our overly optimistic nature of how quickly things can be accomplished. All in all, we are pleased that we are moving forward and we are looking ahead to warmer weather when we can get out and work on installing more Sun Prairie Story Walks!