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By RACHEL RAIFORD | Staff Writer 

ALABASTER – Albert L. Scott Library in Alabaster caters house events to children from the area, like Small Fry Friday and Summer Break Story Time. Now, the library has the opportunity to pour into the local elementary schools outside of the building. 

The Alabaster library recently received two grants from State Reps. Russell Bledsole and Kenneth Paschal. Each grant is $5,000 and allows the library to put forth a total of $10,000 to any community project.

Library Director Kim Roberts has explained how they plan on partnering with the schools to implement a new project. 

“While it will be at the schools, it’s going to be the library’s project,” Roberts said. “We’ll change it every month to keep it current, with a relative dynamic.” 

The project involves the installation of story walks at each of the elementary schools. Story walks are panels put in the ground containing pages from a children’s book. As children walk the path, they are able to read a story or literary prompts. 

“It’s exercise and story time tied in together,” Roberts said. “We even plan on doing seasonal things in the story walks, like something about the president during election time.” 

Through the story walks, Roberts wants to offer a variety of topics to the schools, and they are working together to arrange it in a way that works best for both parties. 

While the locations of the story walks aren’t set in stone, they will be outside where parents and teachers will be able to see them with their children. 

The library attempted to receive a National Endowment for the Arts grant, but were unfortunately denied. After conversations with state representatives, they wanted to supplement the grant. 

“They were very generous in doing that,” Roberts said. “While it’s coming from reserved state funds, they chose to fund our project.” 

Once the story walks are complete, the goal is to hold launch parties at both schools. While the dates for the launch parties are not yet set, they will be announced once the paths are set in place.