O'Leno Literacy Day features fun, games

HIGH SPRINGS – Silver Sovereign, the snow-colored, blue-eyed newly born horse will be making his public debut at O’Leno State Park soon.

The foal, whose barn name is Little Prince, was born the same day and time as the new prince in England. At only 14 inches at birth, he is one of the smallest foals born at Gentle Carousel, a company which breeds horses for therapy. He and his mother, Liberty, will be visiting with kids for a short time early in the day Saturday, Sept. 7 as part of the “Where Tales Meet Trails” event at the O’Leno State Park.

The event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“This will be his first outing,” said one of Little Prince’s owners, Debbie Garcia-Bengochea. “He can only stay a short time because he is so young,” she said.

Children of all ages are invited to the annual event on the grounds of O’Leno State Park, six miles north of High Springs on U.S. Highway 441. Book authors, storytellers and book illustrators will be there, along with games for the visitors to play.

Admission is free by showing a library card, library book or by donating a new or gently used family-appropriate book. Some of the donated books are given out during the festival as prizes, said event coordinator, Cynthia Preston, O’Leno Park Service specialist.

The event is designed to promote literacy and spark an interest in reading among young people.

Any books left over are given to Gentle Carousel to leave with children as they visit children’s hospitals and rehabilitation centers around the country.

Garcia-Bengochea is just one of the authors who will be on hand to read the books they’ve written. Gentle Carousel’s award winning literacy program, Reading is Magic, brings real miniature horses dressed in appropriate character costumes to help illustrate stories for the children in an effort to bring books to life for them.

Each reader has their own booth spread out around the pavilion in the picnic area. Park volunteers will have games set up in the picnic area near the river for kids to enjoy, Preston said. A bean-bag toss and a book walk, similar to a cake walk, but with the prize of a book, will be just some of the games children can expect.

Park volunteer Ann Dominy will lead an adventure walk, where children stop and read sections of a book at certain points in the walk.

Another highlight for older children and adults will be a visit from Valerie Rivers, park manager at Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings State Park. She will be reading excerpts from “The Yearling” in honor of the 75^th Anniversary of its publishing. She will be reading in the pavilion and also will have her own booth for those who would like to visit and learn more.

Author and book illustrator Sandra Poucher, who has written “The Taming of the Slough,A Field Guide to the Critters of Florida's Springs” and “Speleological and Karst Glossary of Florida and the Caribbean” will be sharing some of the drawings she did for her books and will work with children to do illustrations of their own.

High Springs’ resident Diane Eastman will be dressed as Mother Goose and will be reading stories to children in her booth. Other High Springs readers will be Nancy Habig and Linda Lenseth, from Sally’s Sensibles in High Springs. “They always decorate their booth to illustrate the book they are reading,” Preston said. “They are a lot of fun and have been doing this for children for several years.”

Also, High Springs librarian Beth Noll will be one of the readers this year.

Linda Williams and several other ladies from the Daughters of the American Revolution will be reading excerpts from historical novels about the Revolutionary War.

Friends of O’Leno will have an information booth set up with cookies and drinks for everyone. For those who want more than a snack, Jeff Runde, from Branford, will have hot dogs and drinks for sale.

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