Kiwanis StoryWalk® at Al Lopez Park

Kiwanis StoryWalk® is an initiative from The Kiwanis Club of Tampa to encourage literacy and exercise for children. A StoryWalk® is a sign installation that displays a storybook along a walking path page-by-page. In order to read the story, families will walk along the path and read along. The Kiwanis StoryWalk® is installed at Al Lopez Park and will be open to the public after its ribbon-cutting dedication on Sunday, July 24, 2022 at 9:30am.

The Kiwanis StoryWalk® is donated and maintained by The Kiwanis Club of Tampa, and Kiwanis volunteers will change the story each month. Books are hand selected by Kiwanis to include fun adventures and diverse characters aimed at children age 3-7. StoryWalk® will be bilingual, with stories displayed in both English and Spanish, and will also include an audio version to make the program accessible to the visually impaired.

“The Kiwanis Club of Tampa is excited to bring StoryWalk® to Tampa”, says Amanda Malinowski, Chair of the StoryWalk® Committee. “We know that early literacy and a love of reading is fundamental in a child’s educational development. Our hope is that StoryWalk® will encourage literacy skills and help make reading fun!”

The Kiwanis StoryWalk® is funded by The Tampa Kiwanis Foundation. Their two annual fundraisers, The Incredible Duck Race and Chicken Barbecue, fund their many projects for children including the new Kiwanis StoryWalk®.

The StoryWalk® Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT and developed in collaboration with the Kellogg-Hubbard Library.