BY PAUL MITCHELL
North Country This Week

CANTON – The Remington Recreational Trail will be a destination this summer for families to blend reading with an outdoor setting.

The Canton Village Board enthusiastically endorsed a proposal submitted by Canton Free Library Youth Services Director Valerie White to install a permanent StoryWalk on the trail.

I love the idea,” said Mayor Michael Dalton. “I give Val a thumbs up.”

White’s proposal described StoryWalk features laminated pages from a children’s book attached to posts which are installed at regular intervals along the outdoor path.

“One can walk, bike, rollerblade or run down the path, reading from page to page,” White’s proposal read.

The cost adaptation cost at the trail will be incurred by the library through a grant from the Corning Incorporated Foundation.

Village Superintendent Tim Bacon said village work crews will be cutting trees and clearing brush, mainly ash trees, and build up trail edges with gravel to meet the StoryWalk needs.

The library has offered temporary StoryWalks in the Canton community for more than a decade. The proposal noted these events have been held at the Rushton Canoe Races, in the village park during Farmers Markets, at Taylor Park during the library’s Books at the Beach program, and for years at Bend in the River Park as part of the Canton Recreation Department’s summer programming.

“Because of the popularity of the Remington Trail pop-ups, we’d like to request permission to locate the new permanent StoryWalk on the same stretch of trail, beginning at the start of the trail off Sullivan Drive and going clockwise to just beyond the children’s play park. Because of kids’ little legs, it would only need to involve this small stretch, rather than the full loop,” White said.

White reported that input from participants via a QR code in 2022 was nothing but positive.

“From daily walkers, to parents wheeling kids in strollers, to the summer school class at Canton Central School, 229 people over four weeks scanned the code and reported how much they enjoyed reading the stories,” White noted.

The proposal calls for the library to provide the mountable frames, 4x4 posts, concrete for the posts, laminated stories, publicity materials and evaluations, and programming reports, such as coordinated read-alouds.

“The benefits of the project are many. StoryWalks foster literacy and exercise because they encourage individuals and families to get outside to read. Not only are there physical health benefits from walking, but there are mental health benefits to being outside as well.”