HARLINGEN — Families will have the chance to experience a new activity together that combines reading and exercise.
The South Texas Literacy Coalition (STLC), in partnership with the City of Harlingen and Harlingen Public Library, will host a grand opening for its Harlingen StoryWalk on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon at Harlingen City Lake.
StoryWalk was created as a way to enable families to have fun reading together while exploring outdoors.
“This is a new program that we started,” STLC marketing and outreach development associate Valeria Chong said. “It first started as a fundraising idea, but then as we started building on the idea that was created by our staff at the coalition, we realized that by adding more and more components to it, it became more a part of our day to day programming rather than a fundraiser.”
The event will have booths set up along the path with information, swag and games from different community organizations.
Additionally, more than 2,500 free books will be distributed to attendees.
Harlingen StoryWalk’s featured book is “The Adventures of Exo and Cy” by author David Norec from McAllen.
“His book and his mission with his book correlated almost perfectly with our idea behind this project that we want to do,” Chong said. “It capsulated exactly the message that we wanted to get across with the event and with this programming.”
The children’s book is described as being interactive and aims to educate readers about the risks of diabetes while giving the reader an “Exocyse” workout experience.
The book’s main characters are a young boy named “Exo” and his faithful Jack Russel Terrier “Cy,” who are trying to help keep their city healthy.
Pages of the book will be blown up onto sheet metal panels that are about four feet tall and two to three feet wide and will be displayed along the park.
An exercise that correlates with an action the characters are doing will be placed on the bottom of the pages to enable children to be a part of the adventure with Exo and Cy.
Norec earned a Bachelor’s in English from the University of Texas Pan American and was an educator for 14 years.
In 2013 and 2015, Norec lost his brother and sister due to complications from diabetes. After experiencing these tragedies, Norec created “The Adventures of Exo and Cy.”
He said he hopes to change the culture of unhealthy living and create a culture of lifelong readers through his children’s book.
In addition to Norec, other South Texas authors will be at the event.
Families are encouraged by organizers to register for the event for free through Eventbrite by visiting https://tinyurl.com/fzaeum2n.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Chong said. “We’re hoping to get a good turnout and help families get out and be active.”
After the grand opening of the event, the book’s pages will still be on display in the park for two months.
“We hope to do this in other cities in South Texas,” Chong said. “We have a network of authors and titles that we’re hoping will help our other local authors get that promotion and be able to share their stories in communities as well.”
