"Storywalk" allows for reading while walking

RITZVILLE – Young children and their parents or guardians have a fun activity to check out, with the recent installation of a “Storywalk” along the Ritzville Walking Path.

The project, spearheaded by Millie Hopkins, is a children’s story installed, page by page, in 16 evenly-spaced displays installed by the city Public Works crew.

Hopkins, a youth services library assistant with East Adams Library District, just completed installation of the book along the path that runs along East Main Ave heading toward the fairgrounds, last week.

The first book she chose for the Storywalk is “Lion Lessons,” by Jon Agee.

“I thought this would be a fun one, because it is kind of interactive, and the kids can learn to be a lion as they walk along,” Hopkins said. She anticipates changing the book out for a new one every few months.

“This is something we have kicked around for awhile, but funding was a problem,” Hopkins said. “The when COVID hit and things were being shut down, the state library system had grant funds for libraries to apply for things they needed.”

Former Director Kylie Fullmer applied for an Outreach grant, and funds were provided as part of the CARES Act funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

“Those funds were allotted directly to state library systems, who then distributed them out to chosen libraries,” Interim Director Amy Hille said.

Hopkins then went to work finding a book.

“It was a lot more difficult than I anticipated,” Hopkins said. “I needed the exact number of pages for the 16 sign posts. Looking at Amazon, they include the page count, but there are usually a number of blank pages they count that don’t have story on them.”

Hopkins said another challenge was, pages of the book could not be printed individually for installation.

“I had to break the book down. You have to take it apart. Because of copyright issues, you can’t make any changes to the book,” Hopkins said. “It was kind of rough. But I’m excited for it. Things just happened to work out. ACE Hardware donated the posts and cement, and the city donated the time installing it.”

Hopkins has been working for the library the past three years.

“This COVID thing has been really hard, because you don’t get to see the kids,” Hopkins said. “We’ve been really lucky to be able to work from home getting caught up on projects, and we work in shifts to do curbside services. I do all my program stuff online, but it’s not the same because I don’t get to see the kids. I definitely miss seeing them.”