The lake at the center of Carrollwood Village Park is surrounded by little black podiums, each containing a single page from a children’s storybook. It’s the latest edition to the Kiwanis Club of Tampa StoryWalk initiative.
The inspiration behind StoryWalk started around eight years ago when the Kiwanis did an assessment of what the children of Tampa truly needed from the community. As a club over a century old, they decided it was time to refresh their purpose and approach to tackling the issues children face.
The club interviewed nonprofits, hospitals, the police department and children's groups and reached a significant conclusion - the children of Tampa need better school readiness and early childhood education.
“Kids are not ready when they get to kindergarten and they’re starting behind, they’re spending their first years in school catching up,” At a certain point, they’re truly at a disadvantage for the entire rest of their school career,” says Amanda Malinowski, a board member of the Kiwanis Club of Tampa and lieutenant governor of Kiwanis Division 14.
Malinowski also chairs the Storywalk program, passionately overseeing the project in area parks.
“We know we wanted to help kids in education get ready for school,” she says, “And I thought it was a great way to make reading more fun and a great way to bring children and to bring the books where the kids are.”
Expanding the program
The first StoryWalk launched two years ago at Al Lopez Park. Since then, it has received financial support from the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County, a local government agency that provides grants to nonprofits and programs that support children and families in Hillsborough County. After seeing the StoryWalk at Al Lopez, the Children’s Board provided grant funding to expand the program to more parks.
“It is an ideal activity for families that allows them the pleasure of reading wonderful children’s books aloud while enjoying a walk together,” says Children’s Board Executive Director Rebecca Bacon.
With this funding, the Kiwanis opened a StoryWalk in four more parks in Hillsborough - Carrollwood Village, Seffner Community Park & Gardens, Ruskin Park and Recreation Center and Rowlett Park.
The grant is a huge boost for the StoryWalk program’s expansion since the Kiwanis Club and all its projects are entirely led by community volunteers dedicated to helping children.
These volunteers handle upkeep of all StoryWalk installations. Each month, volunteers from four Kiwanis chapters around Hillsborough County install new stories.
The foundation of StoryWalk
In 2007, Montpelier, Vermont resident Anne Ferguson initially created the StoryWalk program in collaboration with the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. StoryWalk mixes exercise and literacy, with children progressing through the pages of a book as they walk the path in a park. The program is geared for children up to age 7.
In Hillsborough, a story selection committee of Kiwanis members and representatives from other local organizations working on children’s literacy meets a few times a year to discuss new books for the project.
“The meetings are kind of cutthroat actually,” Mallinowski jokes, describing debates about the types of books to include. “They’re like ‘This book has too many mice!’”
The club is determined to feature a variety of books and considers what children want to see and read.
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Tashie TierneyAmanda Malinowski, chair of the Kiwanis Club of Tampa StoryWalk program, with a story page at Carrollwood Village Park.“My daughter is the age demographic that these books are geared towards,” says Malinowski. “I like to use her as the guinea pig to see if she seems to like the books. I always joke about how the books are Kiwanis-selected but kid-approved.”
They also take suggestions from community members for the book, through a scannable QR code displayed on the pages of StoryWalk installations. In addition, each page is written in both English and Spanish, so children can improve their reading literacy in multiple languages as they participate in the StoryWalk.
Along with providing free StoryWalks across these parks, the Kiwanis Club is also giving away six books per month. Families who scan the QR codes on the StoryWalk panels will be added to a list of people who will be randomly selected to receive a free book.
“Impact number one is to make kids fall in love with reading. That’s why we want to make it something fun and active,” says Malinowski. “Impact number two is that we want to give kids access to literacy. Many of them are not able to buy books or be able to go to the library all of the time.”
The StoryWalks have been well received, with 75 QR code scans at Carrollwood Village Park since its implementation in April. Malinowski describes hearing success stories of happy children jumping from panel to panel, and even a story about a child asking their parents to return to the “story park.”
“We like to talk to kids and watch them interact with the StoryWalks when we’re out changing the panels,” says Malinowski. “They like the act of running ahead to the next panels, like a scavenger hunt.”
The Kiwanis Club of Tampa’s grassroots effort to build a program that blends reading literacy and exercise fully embodies their motto, “improving the community one child at a time.”
For more information, go to Tampa Kiwanis StoryWalk and Children’s Board of Hillsborough