October 17, 2024
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Yorkville Storywalk to host reading party Sept. 20

By Mark Foster
Circle Center first-grade student Jade Diaz, 6, reads a book page from the new Yorkville Storywalk on Sept. 27, 2022 in Yorkville Junior Women's Club Park as mother Angie Alaniz and sister Scarlett Diaz, 4, look on.

Circle Center first-grade student Jade Diaz, 6, reads a book page from the new Yorkville Storywalk on Sept. 27, 2022 in Yorkville Junior Women's Club Park as mother Angie Alaniz and sister Scarlett Diaz, 4, look on. (Mark Foster)

YORKVILLE – The Yorkville Storywalk has become a part of the community’s landscape, promoting reading, exercise and social engagement.

Located at Yorkville Junior Women’s Club Park in the Heartland Circle neighborhood, the storywalk drew a large crowd of children and their parents for the grand opening a year ago.

The storywalk will host its second annual free family event from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sept. 20 at the park, 1267 Taus Circle.

The concept behind a storywalk is to display an illustrated children’s book, page-by-page, mounted on posts along a park pathway.

The Yorkville Storywalk is composed of 24 stations, spaced along the entire pathway that encompasses the circular park.

The Yorkville Educational Foundation partnered with the city of Yorkville Parks and Recreation Department, Yorkville School District 115, the Yorkville Public Library and the 100+ Women Who Care organization to create the storywalk.

The Sept. 20 event will feature music, prize drawings and frozen treats for sale, but the main attraction will be the book.

The selection will be a book by popular children’s author and illustrator Cale Atkinson. Residents may vote for their favorite Atkinson book by using the QR code to be found on the District 115 website.

The storywalk displays a different book every couple of months. The book pages are mounted on panels supported by steel posts cemented into the ground.

The story boards are about 3 feet from the ground, placing them at eye level for young readers.

To read the book, visitors walk about a third of a mile around the entire park, which also features a playground, a sledding hill and plenty of open space.

The storywalk project cost about $6,500, with a $5,000 grant from 100+ Women Who Care covering the lion’s share.