Story Walk on Stony Creek Trolley Trail

August 25, 2016

B-08-23-16 Welcome signShoreline Greenway Trail appreciates efforts like this one from The Willoughby Wallace library in Stony Creek.  The library has created a StoryWalk for families to get outside and enjoy!

To see it, park at the Shoreline Greenway trailhead on West Point Rd in Stony Creek and head west.  Don’t forget to check out the hidden swing onswing at stony creek 2 your left just after the Story Walk begins.

Following is part of an article posted on Zip06 on 7/18/16: (to read the entire article visit the Willoughby Wallace story walk 2016 website.

‘Hermit Crab’ Stars on Trolley Trail StoryWalk

By Pam Johnson, Senior Staff WriterContact Reporter

Published July 18, 2016. Last updated 10:53 a.m., July 19, 2016

There’s an imaginary character you can catch on Branford’s popular Trolley Trail, and he’s not on Pokemon Go.

Since July 6, pages from storybook author Eric Carle’s colorful tale, A House for Hermit Crab, has the story’s hero popping up prominently on the trail, along a unique StoryWalk posted by the Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library. The library is just a stone’s throw away from the Stony Creek side of the trail, entered from West Point Road.

From Stony Creek, the trail leads to Pine Orchard with features including a span over a former trolley trestle bridge, some stunning views of the Thimble Islands, a concrete pedestrian bridge and trails passing wetlands and woodlands surrounds.

Mom Sarah Bradley sharing Story Walk with her kids

Mom Sarah Bradley sharing Story Walk with her kids

On July 6, the library staff introduced the StoryWalk to the public with a special event that drew about 40 kids (and their adults) to check it out, said Children’s Librarian Stephanie Carvin. The event culminated with kids coming back to the public library to visit hermit crabs and a horseshoe crab in a touch tank experience contributed by a member of the Friends of the Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library.

The library will keep the StoryWalk up and running for the rest of the summer, said Carvin. Posted unobtrusively on wooden stakes along one section of the trail, the walk eventually takes readers past some 30 laminated book pages. It ends at the concrete bridge with the last page of the book, and big surprise for kids to find—hundreds of tiny fiddler crabs in their natural habitat, scampering across the mud at low tide.

Start looking for fiddler crabs!

Start looking for fiddler crabs!

The nationwide StoryWalk Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, Vermont in collaboration with the Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Carvin explained. The project is designed to encouraging reading and hikes/walks. StoryWalk curators simply pick a book that fits the theme or goal of their project.

 “This year’s summer reading has a fitness theme, ‘On Your Mark, Get Set, READ,’” said Carvin. “We thought this would be a perfect year to implement a StoryWalk because it incorporates exercise with reading.”