Wilmington To Hold Next StoryWalk At Rotary Park Later This Month

WILMINGTON, MA — The Wilmington Memorial Library will hold its next StoryWalk at Rotary Park later this month.

From 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on April 15 at the park, located on Adelaide St. across from the Public Safety Building, families will have an opportunity to read the book "Tad" by Benji Davies as they stroll. Each page of the book, which is about a frog, will be mounted on one of the permanent sign holders located throughout the park.

For the day, the park also will be home to a pop-up library with books about frogs and other fun stories, according to library officials.

Nicole Chevalier, youth services librarian at Wilmington Memorial Library, said the book — which follows the life cycle of a small, but brave, frog who wants to grow up as fast as her older tadsiblings — was selected because of the time of year.

"It's a perfect story for spring, since tadpoles will start popping up in freshwater ponds soon, maybe even at the pond at Rotary Park," Chevalier told Patch.

The history of StoryWalk can be traced back to Montpellier, Vermont in 2007, where Anne Ferguson developed the first walk in collaboration with Kellogg-Hubbard Library. The concept, which supports literacy and fitness, has made its way to all 50 states.

In Wilmington, according to Chevalier, a few early attempts at StoryWalks had mixed results, with some mounted pages becoming victims of the elements.

That all changed a few years ago, when Friends of Wilmington Memorial Library funded permanent sign holders at Rotary Park.

"Thanks to their 2021 Annual Appeal, we were able to get the sign posts installed last June and will have had three stories displayed so far," Chevalier said.

The two previous StoryWalks at Rotary Park incorporating the permanent sign holders featured "Explorers of the Wild," by Cale Atkinson and "The Leaf Thief" by Alice Hemming.