Tecumseh Library Invites Visitors To StoryWalk Through Slick Humphrey Park

Tecumseh Library Invites Visitors To by David Dinsmore StoryWalk Through Slick Humphrey Park

Though created prior to the 2020 response to the coronavirus pandemic, the StoryWalk concept seems the perfect product of a year that saw the emphasis on outdoor activity and challenges for libraries to get their resources in front of the communities they serve.

The StoryWalk model incorporates stations featuring panels that can be used to display a book page by page installed in public spaces like a park to provide visitors the opportunity to learn something new or enjoy a new tale while getting some exercise at the same time.

The first StoryWalk was created in 2007 by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, Vermont, and was part of a collaboration with the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in that state, and now that model is making its way through the Pioneer Library System, which installed the second StoryWalk in its territory at Slick Humphrey Park in Tecumseh.

The library worked with the City of Tecumseh to install the StoryWalk with panels running alongside the walking trails winding through the park, according to a Pioneer Library System press release. Walkers can move panel by panel through a book as they make their way through more than 20 stations. The StoryWalk begins at the west end of the parking lot near the splash pad, and each panel will give instructions or hold a one-page spread from a picture book.

The inaugural book displayed in the new StoryWalk is “We're Going on a Bear Hunt,” a 1989 children's picture book written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, but that doesn’t mean the appeal is limited to the youngest readers.

Soon after the StoryWalk’s opening, Tecumseh Public Library branch manager Beth Lyle received word from the family of 93-year-old Tecumseh resident Barbara Robinson, who visited Slick Humphrey Park to enjoy the new panels.

Library administrators are looking to change out the content in the StoryWalk panels every four to six weeks and are looking at material that covers topics like local nature, the importance of literacy, history of the city and other topics of interest to visitors.

“We were so impressed with all the options you could do with those panels,” said Beth Lyle, branch manager at the Tecumseh Public Library.

The StoryWalk followed a similar setup along new walking trails at Purcell City Lake in Purcell, according to the release, and more Pioneer Library System communities are eyeing similar projects, including the one McLoud administrators are currently planning.

The library system hosted a ribbon cutting for the StoryWalk on March 12 with State Sen. Zack Taylor and State Rep. Dell Kerbs attending. They presented an official proclamation from the state of Oklahoma to the library regarding the Story Walk.

The roots for the StoryWalk came from health literacy grant funds provided by the Oklahoma Department of Libraries and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Lyle said. In the past, funds from these grants have helped provide programming at the library, such as a women’s health conference hosted in 2019. With the shift to more virtual programs due to the response to the coronavirus pandemic, Lyle and her staff were looking for ways to use those funds to help focus on projects to combine health and literacy. In fact, those emphases have helped inform the upcoming choices for the materials that will feature in the new panels of the StoryWalk.

“We really tried to focus on health topics,” Lyle said. “This is a great way to promote healthy living and literacy at the same time.”

Readers are encouraged to scan the QR code on the final panel and take a short survey to help Story Walk funders about their experience, and the library is also providing a little incentive for walkers to go the distance.

“Children who stop by the library afterward to let us know they have completed the Story Walk will receive a gift,” Lyle said.

Find out more about any of the services offered by the library by calling (405) 598-5955 or visiting pioneerlibrarysystem.org/tecumseh.

Tecumseh resident Barbara Robinson, 93, enjoys reading a book panel by panel during a walk through Slick Humphrey Park, which features a new StoryWalk installed by the Pioneer Library System, Tecumseh Public Library and the city incorporating 20 stations throughout the park that house pages from a book or other educational materials for visitors who want to stroll through a learning journey.

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