The Merrickville Public Library (MPL) and the Merrickville District Trails Society have teamed up to bring a new attraction to one of the trails in Merrickville. The Story Trail is a 200m walk along the Woodland Toboggan Hill Loop behind the Merrickville Public School. The trail will have several stations along the path, telling the story of a popular children’s book. “The idea is to take a picture book and put it along a nature trail,” says MPL Librarian Mary-Kate Laphen. “There is a literature component and a nature component.”
Tim Allen, of the Trails Society, says they have had temporary story trails in the past along the route, but this is the first year for the more permanent installation. The Trails Society is using weatherproof plywood to fix the 14 pages of the story along the route at child-height on trees and a few posts.
Tim is hoping to have three to four stories up throughout the summer. The story trail will be up and running as of July 13, and Mary-Kate will be leading an animated walk at 1:30pm on that date. The first story will be The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson, and the installation will be up for the rest of the summer for families to enjoy self directed walks.
Funding for the project was generously donated by Run Merrickville and the Merrickville Lions Club. Tim says the Village was also very helpful with their in-kind donations.
The Library will be scheduling more animated walks along the Story Trail throughout the summer. For more information about dates and times for future walks, contact the Library. Tim says the Trails Society is also open to feedback and they can be reached through the Library or Tim’s email timothy.allen.2@ulaval.ca. “I hope it is a pleasant experience,” he says about the trail.
