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On a cloudy Friday afternoon, Get Troup Reading held a ribbon cutting for Troup County’s first StoryWalk at the George Harris Fields Baseball Complex.

The StoryWalk is signage along a walking path, in which each side displays different pages of a book from beginning to end.

“I’m so glad the rain held off, and we had a good turnout,” said Kim Myers, director of Get Troup Reading. “I’m excited to see it all come together. The signage looks great — the trail is a beautiful segment of The Thread I hope will draw more people out to come out to exercise their bodies and minds.”

The event welcomed many children and local community leaders, including Troup County School System Superintendent Dr. Brian Shumate.

“I appreciate the work that Get Troup Reading has done on behalf of all kids in Troup County, as far as promoting literacy, across all students and specifically in our school district. This is yet another way to engage families in the process of literacy and reading,” Shumate said. “The StoryWalk is a really good symbolic way for kids to realize that reading is not just something you do in school — it’s a life skill and something you can do with your family both inside and outside of the school house.”

Myers said the StoryWalk was created by a librarian named Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, Vermont and developed in collaboration with the Kellogg Hubbard Library StoryWalk.

To bring a StoryWalk to Troup County, Myers applied for grants and received funding from the West Point Fund, the LaGrange Junior Service League and TCSS through its L4GA Grant.

Currently, there is only one StoryWalk in Troup County, with hopes for expansion in the future.

Myers said the ultimate goal of the trail is to improve literacy in Troup County.