Years: 2022
Tallahassee is the most educated city in Florida, but work must continue to ensure that the joy of reading reaches all corners of our community. KCCI’s 2022 Community Catalyst class merged art and nature to create unique literary experiences.
Click below to watch a video summary of the 2022 Community Catalyst Project:
The Fully Booked project creates places to build literacy skills while exploring the great outdoors. It includes Wander & Wonder Trails at three Leon County park locations.
At Pedrick Pond Park, the Fully Booked project includes a Wander & Wonder Trail, book benches, and a hammock garden.
The project inspires literacy through art and creates a place that promotes community physical and mental health in addition to being a place where a love for reading is celebrated. The Fully Booked project concept was unanimously approved by the Leon County Commission at the Tuesday, March 8, 2022, meeting. The ribbon cutting was celebrated on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022, click HERE to read more about the unveiling event.
The Features
Wander & Wonder Trail
The team’s Fully Booked placemaking project concept includes Wander & Wonder Trails where people read a “book” on artistic signs as they explore the trails. Thanks to the support of the Friends of the Leon County Public Library, the Wander & Wonder Trail is placed at three locations: Pedrick Pond Park, Woodville, and Fort Braden. All three parks are near Leon County Public Library branches, and the books featured in Wander & Wonder will rotate out throughout the year.
The Wander & Wonder Trail is an artistic, multifaceted installation placed along the ADA accessible trails near libraries. The exhibit presents different narratives through interchangeable “book” page panels. The opening and closing panels will drive readers to the nearby library and encourage them to visit the library web site and other Leon County resources.
Book Benches
Located at Pedrick Pond Park, the Book Benches are featured along the scenic .4-mile trail. Along the path, citizens can relax on book-themed benches that were envisioned by KCCI’s 2022 Community Catalyst team and built by local artist Mark Dickson and the Florida State University MasterCraftsman Studio.
The book benches were sponsored by: The Foundation for Leon County Schools, Dr. Cory & Betsy Couch, and Donna Blanton & John Van Gieson.
Hammock Garden
In addition, at Pedrick Pond Park a hammock garden provides places to pause and spots to enjoy the park. Visitors are invited to check out hammocks from Leon County’s Eastside Library located in the park.
The 2022 KCCI Community Catalyst’s project brings together all ages of residents, students, artists and organizations to incorporate a blend of unexpected surprises along the trails and create a place where a love for reading can be celebrated as a community.
Community Partners
Thank you to all of the community partners that made the project possible.
Thank you to the KCCI community partners that made the 2022 KCCI Community Catalyst class possible so that the team could envision this community asset.
Media Coverage
To view media stories about the project, click here.
Iconic Art Element
Click here to view the request for proposals file that was used when securing artistic renderings for a large iconic art element. The call for artists is closed and was open for two months mid-2022. Originally, the KCCI team wanted to include an iconic art element as part of the Fully Booked experience, but after community engagement determined to focus on the Wander & Wonder trails, book benches (which are iconic themselves), and hammock garden creation.
Images Credit: TRICKEY PHOTOGRAPHY
Community Catalysts
These are the people who helped make this project possible.
- Tiffany Baker
- Donna Blanton
- Vicki Bradley
- Missy Briggs
- Jordan Jacobs
- Andrea Jones
- John Lhotka
- Caleb Martinez
- Ericka McKibbin
- Gjergj Ndoja
- Scott Shamp
- Kristen Summers
- Darby Tish