The McMinnville Parks and Recreation Department has begun installing a new Storybook Walking Path.
Parks and Recreation Director Justin Long said the project includes nineteen panels placed along walking trail. Long said each panel features a page of a book, so by the end of the trail, visitors will have read an entire story. Long said the panels are set eighteen inches off the ground, ensuring they are at a perfect height for children to read.
“Hopefully it’ll be something that we can just continue working on,” Long said. “I think it’s just gonna give kids the opportunity though with their parents to, to get out and get an educational piece with that. So I’m really excited about it that we got the grant.”
Long said grant funding for the project comes from the Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation. Long said the trail features the story, Hugo The Impossible Thing. Long also said the panels are interchangeable, giving the town the flexibility to change the story in the future to meet community needs.
“We have a neighboring school right here in my backyard, a K-5 school,” Long said. And so it’s gonna give teachers and students the opportunity to not only get outside and walk and get some fresh air but also get an educational piece as they’re walking around our trail.”
Long said the trail ties in with sidewalk, goes through the baseball complex, and the elementary school. Long said all panels are full color. Long said the project is planned to be finished next week with a ribbon ceremony as a celebration.
“Again, spacing that out over a three quarter mile walking track was fun,” Long said. “I tried to space them out evenly so, you know, as the students or parents or whoever walking the path, they’re kinda, they’re not so close together.”
