One of the 20 storyboards can be seen at right along the new North Yarmouth StoryWalk behind the community center. Devin Gifford / For the Forecaster
North Yarmouth’s new StoryWalk is up and running, thanks to a community effort and a “passionate” group of volunteers.
The half-mile path through the woods at the North Yarmouth Community Center that opened last month was proposed and created by volunteers using donated materials.
A sign points the way to North Yarmouth’s new StoryWalk. Devin Gifford / For the Forecaster
“A real passionate group of people did that,” said Diane Morrison, a member of the Living Well in North Yarmouth Committee. “This was definitely a passionate endeavor.”
The goal of the StoryWalk is to promote a love of reading in young children and offer a fun outdoor activity for families. The first featured children’s story is local author Margaret Aitken’s “Old Friends.” Pages of the book are laminated on 20 boards posted at intervals along out the trail. The stories will be swapped out each month.
The Living Well committee presented the idea for a StoryWalk to the Select Board last winter. The board liked the idea but left it up to the committee to fund it. So, the committee got to work to plan and clear the trail, enlisting the help of a host of community volunteers.
Lumber and paint for the storyboards were donated by Hammond Lumber and Maine Paint Co. Steve Palmer, chairman of the Living Well committee, and volunteer Andy Walsh constructed the boards, and “myself and another woman, Ann Dillon, met in my garage, and we painted everything,” Morrison said. Public Works installed the completed boards along the trail.
Local author Margaret Aitken’s children’s book is the first to be featured on the North Yarmouth StoryWalk.
The StoryWalk books will draw from a collection of material at Prince Memorial Library for use in both Cumberland and North Yarmouth.
“We look for stories that have big, bold pictures, that are geared to the roughly 3- to 4-year-old child,” said Kelly Greenlee, the library’s outreach coordinator.
This month’s “Old Friends” centers on Marjorie, a young girl with an old soul who is looking for friends after the loss of her grandmother. She disguises herself to gain access to a local senior center, where she befriends many of the seniors, but things don’t quite go as planned.
“Although the walk is designed for very young children, it really is for everybody, and that’s a big theme in my book,” Aitken said.
The Living Well committee hopes to make the trail handicapped accessible through grant funding, Morrison said.
Freelance writer Devin Gifford, a student at Greely High School, is a resident of North Yarmouth.
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