The purpose (of) this project is to support children’s literacy and outdoor activity."”

Eve Lowrimore, PHS senior

PORTSMOUTH — Young tikes would be able to read a good story while hiking in the great outdoors if a proposal by a Portsmouth High School student gets town approval.

Eve Lowrimore, for her senior project at PHS, wants to install a StoryWalk on the southern field at town-owned Glen Park. She is expected to present her proposal to the Town Council on Monday, Feb. 27, beginning at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

“The purpose (of) this project is to support children’s literacy and outdoor activity,” Miss. Lowrimore stated in a letter to the Town Council. “This StoryWalk project, with the guidance of Mrs. Valerie Seveney, entails installing posts along a trail. These posts contain pages of a story.”

According to its website, a StoryWalk is an outdoor path featuring laminated pages from a children’s book attached to wooden stakes. Those who stroll the trail are directed to the next page in the story.

StoryWalks, which were created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, Vt. and developed with the help of Rachel Senechal of Kellogg-Hubbard Library, have been installed in 50 states and 11 countries, according to the website.

Miss Lowrimore, who has taken child development classes at PHS, said she’s proposing the StoryWalk as a method of sparking children’s interest in reading.

“Compared to a decade ago, children nowadays hardly ever read for fun,” she stated in her written senior project proposal. “If children are given a new way to read with a creative idea brought to them, it can create an interest for them, due to the fact that not every person is the same and some people need to be introduced to different ways and strategies to intrigue them.”

Valerie Seveney, a first-grade teacher at Melville Elementary School who once had Miss Lowrimore as a student, is her mentor for the project. 

In her written proposal, Miss Lowrimore said the StoryWalk could be “permanent or semi-permanent.” (In other existing StoryWalks, the “books” can be taken down and switched out with new ones on occasion.)

If her StoryWalk gets approved, Miss Lowrimore said she hopes the first book featured is “Lemon the Duck,” by local author Laura Backman.

Pending council approval, Miss Lowrimore’s next job would be to construct the posts with assistance from a local Boy Scout troop and the Portsmouth High varsity cheerleading team on March 18 and 25. The posts would be installed April 8, with the grand opening scheduled for April 15 (rain date of April 16), under her proposal.