(Arnolds Park)– Some big improvements are coming to the Arnolds Park Story Book Walk at Wildcat Stadium. Cara Rice, head librarian at the Arnolds Park Public Library, says work on the project will be getting underway soon…
“It was put in, oh I guess it’s been about four years ago. We initially had just kind of made some homemade podiums, if you will, and it definitely didn’t help with all the rain that we had the last couple of years and they were in need of some repairs. So we are going with a company that create the podiums for the national parks and the zoos, so these will be completely weatherproof, tamper proof, as well as UV protection to keep the pages from fading and kind of keep the stories a little more interactive and fun for everybody to get to view. In addition to that then we are also able to purchase the stories through a company they work with which will allow us to switch those out on a more frequent basis and just keep it really fun for everybody and something new for them to come back for every week.”
She says the goal is to get the project completed before the main thrust of the tourist season…
“The lead time right now is about four to six weeks so our goal right now is to have everything ready to go by July 1st with a really fun kind of fourth of July Independence Day story for the kids to enjoy.”
Rice says the Arnolds Park Public Library Foundation is playing a significant role in making the upgrades possible…
“They are doing the initial investment to get these podiums going for us and then our hope is to reach out to some local businesses where they will have the opportunity to sponsor a podium. It’s a lifetime sponsorship; they will have their name as well as their business logo, information, anything that they might want there, and that will stay year-round. So we’ll be doing stories year-round, and then it will just be a constant form of advertising. So we’ll be reaching out to businesses here in the next few weeks to see who might be interested in sponsoring one of those.”
Rice says the story book walk goes around the perimeter of Wildcat Stadium…
“It’s just a nice, safe walking path. It’s just under a quarter of a mile if you walk the whole thing. It’s nice and safe, it’s a sidewalk so you don’t have to worry about traffic, so it’s definitely a way to get a little bit of reading in and burn off some energy for the kids.”
She says it’s become a very popular attraction.
