Grant Stories

Winneconne students are able to combine exercise, outdoor recreation, and literacy through a story hike trail thanks to a grant from the Winneconne Area Education Fund. The recreation trail, located at the Norbert Rich School Forest, is a designated hiking trail that has 18 permanent structures along the course of the trail, each featuring pages of a book. As students progress through the trail, they will read an entire book.

The grant funds were used to purchase the sign structures to house the pages of the book along the trail. The story hike trail debuted the week of September 19 to many Winneconne Community School District (WCSD) students. The story hike trail gives the school forest, WCSD, and the community a local hiking trail that will serve as a great place for kids and families to experience the outdoors while engaging in reading skills at the same time.

School Forest Director Pat Kolbe shared, “I’m really excited about the completion of this project and how the signs and trail turned out. This will be a great asset for our school and community. Not only will elementary students get to use the trail on their school forest field trips, but I encourage families to bring out their young children on weekends or after school hours to take a hike on the trail and enjoy the stories which we’ll be changing up each month from March thru October!”

More information about the school forest along with directions can be found here.