On October 9th, 2024 at noon, West Greene School District cut the ribbon officially opening their new story stroll to students. The story stroll is a series of 18 plaques built by Mr. Snyder’s high school classes with the help of Mr. McDermitt for placement.
West Greene School board member Leean Danley explained, “Mr. Painter and Mr. Gaydos helped me to determine the location of the story stroll and each stand. Mrs. Jessica Bisset placed the orders for the materials. The students from a couple of Mr. Snyder’s classes in the high school helped to assemble the stands and install them in the spring and fall of 2024.”
Each plaque contains two pages of a children’s storybook with activities. Leean, along with a team of elementary teachers such as Miss Jacobs, Mrs. Bohon, Miss Pinto, and Ms. Whitlatch, helped to select the books and prepare the activities and questions for each book. Over the summer, Mrs. Lana Miller painstakingly laminated each page. Each month, the book chosen will be different to inspire literacy and collaboration at the school district whilst enjoying the outdoors. Leean, along with Melissa Ullom, applied for the Intermediate Unit 1 Innovation Grant and the West Greene Innovation Grant to fund this project. West Greene School board members approved the grant application and the project.
In front of the second grade class, Miss Danley remarked, “Once again, we would like to thank the Intermediate Unit 1 Innovation grant program, the EQT Foundation, the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, and the Equitrans Midstream Foundation for funding this project.”
The goal of the story stroll is to inspire literacy for all students, as the entire country, not just Greene County, is facing a national literacy crisis. Another goal for the stroll is to promote collaboration in the school district. Leeann remarked, “After opening the story stroll, we hope that additional collaboration between students, teachers, and board members will continue to take place. In the future, we hope to feature student work in the story stroll.”
Other than school staff and board members, County commissioners Jared Edgreen and Betsy Mclure took part in the ribbon cutting ceremony. Commissioner Edgreen stated, “This is truly amazing. I want to thank our teachers, grant writers and administrators so that we and our children can truly thrive as a county and a school district. We are trying to be a voice for this county, for our students and our schools.”
This month’s book for the stroll is The Biggest Pumpkin Ever written by Steven Kroll and illustrated by Jeni Bassett. This story is about two mice who care for the same pumpkin but at different times. Both mice discover they care for the same pumpkin and decide to work together to grow the biggest pumpkin ever. A retired West Greene teacher, Mrs. Sophie Haines, designed and compiled the activities and questions for the book; she is currently teaching in Mexico.
You can check out the storybook stroll for yourself by visiting the West Greene School District.