The Plattsburgh City School District has opened a new StoryWalk in a city park adjacent to an elementary school.
Eighteen pedestals have been installed along a walkway in Melissa Penfield Park, which is adjacent to the Glasgow Elementary School. On Monday officials and students celebrated the newly installed StoryWalk during a ribbon cutting at the first pedestal.
The idea of a StoryWalk germinated during the COVID pandemic, and Glasgow and Oak Street School Libraries Media Specialist Erin McGill worked to bring it to reality. She spoke to the students who had completed a circuit of the StoryWalk.
“Our StoryWalk is super-exciting. It goes all around the path so it’s a nice long walk, McGill tells the students. “And our first story is called ‘School is more than a Building’ because in our school, do we have big people that help run our school? Yeah. And it goes all the way from our teachers to our custodians to our food service. But we do it because of you kids because we love all of you and we’re proud of all of you and we want you to learn and grow. So this book is all about that. But it’s also about our big community of Plattsburgh and now we have a StoryWalk that will have different stories all through the year. Are you excited? Are you ready to read? All right!”
McGill explained that the StoryWalk was initially done with makeshift signs. The idea of a more permanent installation was presented to the school board and eventually the mayor’s office provided funding to install the pedestals.
“StoryWalks have been around for a long time but they really got popular during COVID where communities were putting them out so kids could have stories and get out and move and kind of have a reading experience even though our schools were closed,” McGill relates. “There’s 18 pedestals. Each pedestal has a part of the story and along with this story there’s movement too. So it’ll have a page from the book but it’ll also have the kids stop and think and talk about a part of the book and sometimes activity like jump, do 10 jumps, and talk about your favorite thing about school or do jumping jacks. So there’s a lot of interactive parts. So it’s not just reading the book. There’s movement and social interaction too.”
Plattsburgh School District Superintendent Jay Lebrun says the StoryWalk initiative will benefit the entire community.
“We have rolled all into one accomplishment literacy, recreation, getting students outdoors, intermunicipal partnership. And in that regard I just think this is a tremendous thing.”
The city Department of Public Works installed the pedestals. Mayor Chris Rosenquest says it was an easy partnership to agree to.
“Recreation is a huge thing for us. This hits that. Literacy and student engagement, that hits that. Projects like this that are community driven are easy for the city of Plattsburgh to accomplish,” says Rosenquest. “You know, we were over here yesterday, just as citizens at that point, installing the book in the pedestals. So, again, it’s an easy partnership. It’s a good quality of life piece for students and for residents alike.”
The stories are expected to be changed about four times a year.
