Girl Scout creates storybook trail at Asbury Woods in hopes of bringing more children outside

Kendall Laurin is providing more than just Girl Scouts cookies for her community.

The Millcreek Township resident is hoping to leave a lasting, educational experience for children.

Laurin, 14, is working toward her Silver Award, which is the highest award a Cadette Girl Scout ― girls in grades sixth through eighth ― can achieve.

In order to earn the award, she must complete a project that makes a difference in her community. She chose to create a storybook trail at Asbury Woods, 4105 Asbury Road in Millcreek Township.

"I wanted to do a storybook trail because after COVID, people just shut off and stayed inside," Laurin said. "A lot of little kids all have their tablets and stay inside, but most of my childhood I was outside."

Laurin's trail opened to the public on Sept. 10 and is expected to stay up until the end of October, weather permitting.

Why did she pick her project?

A storybook trail is an activity where pages of a book, usually a children's story, are placed along a path for people to follow along to as they walk among nature.

"I want kids outside and reading and enjoying nature," she said.

Laurin must dedicate 50 hours to her project, much of which were spent finding the right book for the trail. After consulting with a librarian at Blasco Library, she decided on "The Birdwatchers" by Simon James.

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"I’ve never heard of the book and when I found it I thought it was a sweet little story," Laurin said. "At the grand opening (of the trail), Asbury Woods had a bird event going on and the book is about birds, so it was perfect."

"The Birdwatchers" follows a grandfather who claims the birds he watches perform impossible tasks. His granddaughter is skeptical and decides to join him on one of his birdwatching expeditions to find out the truth.

Storybook trail puts it all together

Picking Asbury Woods as the location for her storybook trail was an easy decision for Laurin.

"I used to volunteer here and I’ve just always loved Asbury Woods," she said.

Laurin met with Sarah Bennett, director of education and community programs at Asbury Woods, who helped her figure out the logistics of her project.

"I thought it was a really great idea and it seemed like it would be fairly simple to implement," Bennett said. "We took a few walks in the woods to decide where to put the storybook trail and we wanted to make sure it was accessible, but also so we could have it close enough to a trail where people could see it."

In order to still make it fully accessible to all visitors any time, Laurin produced a virtual visit, which filmed her walking the trail and talking about it. It will be posted on Asbury Woods' website for people to check out even after she takes her project down. Bennett said the video should be available to watch in the coming weeks.

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When it came to the construction of her storybook trail, Laurin made three copies of "The Birdwatchers," laminated each page and stapled them to stakes that were donated from Lowe's.

"The book is 26 pages, so it’s long enough to fill the trail but not too long to make kids bored," Laurin said.

Project reaches the community

Since the storybook trail's installation, Laurin has gone out several times to check on her project.

It's her responsibility to maintain the trail, which includes wiping debris off the stakes, re-stapling any fallen pages and hammering back down any stakes that come loose.

Laurin still has a few hours left to fill her 50-hour requirement and some paperwork to finish until the Girl Scout Silver Award project committee can evaluate her storybook trail, but she's proud of the things she learned throughout the process.

"I’ve learned how to be resourceful and try and think of simpler ways of doings, how to talk to people on the phone, talk to adults and ask things that kids don’t normally ask for," she said.

At the end of the trail, there's a stake where people can make a tally with a pencil showing they walked Laurin's storybook trail. As of Thursday, Bennett counted roughly 150 tallies.

"The first day (the trail) was up we had a Girl Scout group come visit and we directed them there and they really loved that activity and did their hiking badge while going on the storybook trail ... so there’s been really great response," Bennett said.

Baylee DeMuth can be reached at 814-450-3425 or bdemuth@timesnews.com. Follow her on Twitter @BayleeDeMuth.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Girl Scout creates storybook trail at Asbury Woods to get kids outside