CRESCO, Pa. — If you decide to hike the trail at Barrett Township Community Park at Ice Lake, a story now comes with your visit.
The Barrett Paradise Friendly Library launched Its new "Tale on the Trail" program.
"During the pandemic, we had to shut down, and a lot of our programming was either virtual or outside, so this was something that was come up by, I think a librarian up in Vermont originally did this. We kind of just jumped on board and said, 'Hey, we have to be outside. May as well be outside reading and having fun together,'" Chelsea Corso, a children's librarian at Barrett Paradise Friendly Library, said.
Corso pushed for the outdoor reading adventure.
Right now, the featured book is "Around the Pond: Who's Been Here" by local author Lindsey Barrett George.
"It's about a 12th a 10th of a mile there to the end of the trail and back. It's rocky, but it's definitely OK for a stroller. Young children might need a little help walking, but it's pretty flat," Corso said.
Librarians tested out the idea during the COVID-19 pandemic. It worked so well that they decided to make it a permanent feature in the park.
"It can teach the kids a lot of things, but to appreciate what's going on right around them and to kind of live in the moment and enjoy the trial while they're on the trail, that's our main goal," Corso said. "Just have everybody slow down, take the time to read a book, and walk together.
A family from Staten Island was on vacation, taking a walk around the park.
"They'll know what is in the wildlife they're walking in right at that moment. Like, they'll know, let's just say tadpoles are in the pond that they're looking at right there, and it'll be like educational," Harrison Franzen said.
"They might like learn about the environment, and it can help them with maybe becoming a scientist of something," Emerson Franzen said.
The library hopes to regularly update and feature new books on the trail at Ice Lake.
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