Dozens of Baldwin County residents recently gathered at the Collins P. Lee Community Center in Milledgeville to witness the ribbon cutting of its new “Tale Trail,” a series of brightly colored storyboards placed throughout the community center’s quarter-mile walking trail.
This new addition to the Milledgeville community aims to inspire literacy among children, as well as to encourage their parents or caregivers to spend time with them in an outdoor setting.
The story boards feature pages from Grayson’s Playdate, by Steve J. Zachary, a county native and graduate of Baldwin County High School.
The picture book spotlights Zachary’s 8-year-old son, Grayson, as the main character. In the book, Zachary tells a story of Grayson providing kindness and care to others to encourage growth and positivity among elementary-aged children.
“To be able to display Grayson’s Playdate to the kids… It’s all about growth. If you’re not growing, you’re not living, and if you’re not living, then we’re not doing something right,” Zachary said.
According to Zachary, growth is a vital part of the Baldwin County community. The author left the county in 2011 and returned in 2022, stating that, when he left, safety was often a strong concern for both himself and other county residents.
“This place had so much going on, where you didn’t know whether you were going to be safe, you didn’t know whether your kids were going to be safe,” Zachary said, “And now you have [the Tail Trail], a safe place, a haven for the kids, not only to exercise and play, but also to learn.”
Through providing outlets of creativity and learning to children, Zachary aims to continue transforming his community and encouraging education and fun among the youth of Baldwin County and greater Milledgeville.
According to Lindy Morgan, executive director of the Sandra Dunnegan Deal Center for Early Language and Literacy at Georgia College, “ Grayson’s Playdate won’t be the only story featured along the Tale Trail. The overall idea of the project is to install different stories onto the displays quarterly, with the next storybook planning replace Grayson’s Playdate in July.
According to Morgan, the mission of GCSU’s Deal Center is to support language and literacy development in children.
“We know that the number of words that children hear from birth to age three is one of the biggest predictors of how well they’re going to read by third grade,” Morgan said, “So this trail is set to facilitate that, ‘Let’s get to talking’ [mindset], and [will encourage caregivers to] get to talking a lot with their little ones.”
Implementing the Tale Trail into the community center was no quick and easy feat, as Morgan stated that the project had been in the works since Fall 2023, taking approximately six months to successfully bring the Tale Trail to Milledgeville. However, getting to see the final result of the project was extremely rewarding for her.
“Seeing the individuals that are part of this community and have built up this community center… and it’s a place for people to come together and love one another, that beats all,” Morgan said.
The Sandra Dunnegan Deal Center funded the project, and the story boards were designed by Georgia College & State University’s Creative Services.
For more information about the Tale Trail, please contact the Sandra Dunnegan Deal Center for Early Language and Literacy (478) 445-8500, or the Milledgeville- Baldwin County Chamber of Commerce at (478) 453-9311.