Stories Combined With Family Fitness At New Kiwanis StoryWalk

TAMPA, FL — Tampa families can now read a story while taking a walk through Al Lopez Park, 4810 N Himes Ave., Tampa, thanks to the Kiwanis Club of Tampa.

The Kiwanis StoryWalk is an initiative from the Kiwanis Club of Tampa to encourage literacy and exercise for children. A StoryWalk is a sign installation that displays a storybook along a walking path page by page. To read the story, families will walk along the path and read along.

The Kiwanis StoryWalk was donated and will be maintained by the Kiwanis Club of Tampa, and Kiwanis volunteers will change the story each month. Books are hand selected by the Kiwanis club to include fun adventures and diverse characters aimed at children age 3 to 7.

StoryWalk is bilingual, with stories displayed in both English and Spanish, and also include an audio version to make the program accessible to the visually impaired.

“The Kiwanis Club of Tampa is excited to bring StoryWalk to Tampa," said Amanda Malinowski, chair of the StoryWalk Committee. “We know that early literacy and a love of reading is fundamental in a child’s educational development. Our hope is that StoryWalk will encourage literacy skills and help make reading fun,”

The Kiwanis StoryWalk is funded by The Tampa Kiwanis Foundation. Its two annual fundraisers, The Incredible Duck Race and Chicken Barbecue, which will take place Oct. 20, fund its many projects for children including the new Kiwanis StoryWalk.

The StoryWalk Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, Vermont, and developed in collaboration with the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. Learn more about the Kiwanis StoryWalk at TampaKiwanis.org.