'For kids, by kids': Highland Park students create kids' guide to Stillwater

Feb. 27—Kids who visit Stillwater with their families will now have their own guide to the City.

A group of fifth-graders from Highland Park Elementary School worked on a visitors' travel guide for kids and presented their completed project Monday during the Stillwater City Council meeting.

It's the first guide in Stillwater that has been created for kids and made by kids. The final product includes the tagline "Stillwater: Where the waters are still and the people are chill!"

Thirteen gifted and talented students worked with the project, but six were present at the City Council meeting to present the final product. The six students explained how they worked with Visit Stillwater to create a guide to the City.

The class started the project by writing to business owners around town, then they visited each location to experience it for themselves. After returning to class, they worked together to choose pictures, write reviews and complete each page of the guide.

They also visited the Stillwater Visitor Center, working with Visit Stillwater Director Cristy Morrison and Director of Sales Nicole Horn.

Morrison said the project has been in process for a year and a half. She said the team at Visit Stillwater showed the students how they build the Visit Stillwater guide.

"We went through every single step of the process with those 13 students," Morrison said. "We had a really good time."

The process involved discussing the size and format of the guide and how it translated to the budget, content and how to determine what to include, the value of pictures and the necessity to experience what will be featured.

Morrison said the cost of mailing the guide was also brought up as an important consideration. Her team assisted the class with contact information for local businesses to secure gift certificates and passes so the kids and their parents could visit local hospitality industry partners.

Morrison also set up interviews with TV-31, Team Radio, and Stillwater Radio so the students could promote the guide.

The students also visited with the team at the Career Tech printing facility and Printing Plant Manager Tom Hodges to observe how the printing process operated.

The students said they were grateful to have the opportunity to show others what "wonderful things Stillwater has to offer children and families." They said it was important to them that Visit Stillwater put the confidence in them to use their abilities to "pull off a professional piece of work."

"We believe in our abilities and appreciate adults who do the same," one student said.

City of Stillwater Mayor Will Joyce said he was able to sit down and talk with the students about their project, along with Vice Mayor Amy Dzialowski and City Attorney Kimberly Carnley. Joyce said the students were well prepared and had thoughtful questions.

"I really appreciate the work they did on this project," Joyce said. "I think we should spend the whole evening just kind of looking through this guide. ... They were very engaged and involved in the project."

Gifted and Talented Education Teacher Tracy Pendred said the project began with a connection she made with Visit Stillwater. She had previously coordinated a similar guide when she lived in Baltimore.

"While the center has a wealth of information, there were no guides directed specifically toward children or families," Pendred told the News Press.

She said the students in her class are tasked with experiencing real-world problems or gaps and working to fix them as students. She said the kids were amazed that they would be tackling a professional project by themselves.

"They were surprised at how often the professionals took them seriously and how good it felt to be responsible for this work," Pendred said. "Most of all, they were impressed with themselves at how well everything turned out when they worked together."

Along the way, she said they learned about not only tourism and Stillwater's economy and government, but also how businesses promote themselves, how to write reviews, how to connect with professionals, how to design the guide and how to understand invoices and the printing process.

"Most of all, I hope that they learned what they are capable of right now," Pendred said. "I hope they learned that they don't need to wait until they've acquired the skills or knowledge to attempt to create solutions. Knowledge and skills will come, but the drive and desire to better their world is all they need to get started."