Tom Tolen / news@whmi.com

Downtown Brighton is all aglow in holiday splendor, and this year it looks especially inviting, with the $6 million Streetscape project having permanently altered the look of downtown. One permanent new addition that may not be so evident to shoppers along Main Street is the Kiwanis Club's StoryWalk on the Tridge at the Mill Pond.

Dennis Dimoff of the Brighton Kiwanis Club, which is sponsoring the attraction, tells WHMI the StoryWalk is the first such effort by the club. However, he says it's not the only one in the county and there are a few others: in Howell, Hamburg Township, and at the Genoa Township Park. Nonetheless, Dimoff says, in his words, “Ours is different because we’re using (only) Michigan authors and illustrators.”

The StoryWalk, which was constructed by the city of Brighton DPW, consists of sixteen 18" by 24” frames - each frame depicting a full-color page from the book. The glass-enclosed pages are hooked onto the Tridge railings. Dimoff says, “You walk the Tridge and you walk the book,” a page at a time. Each page has a question at the bottom to engage the child who views it.

The first book selected is “A Wish to Be a Christmas Tree, which was written by Colleen Monroe of Brighton and illustrated by her husband, Michael. Future books will also feature Michigan authors and illustrators.

Howell resident Kyle Thurston was at the Mill Pond Tuesday and found the StoryWalk a good addition at the Tridge. "I think it’s a good addition to the Tridge because it engages the children and gets more people to walk along and explore the area," Thurston said. His smiling daughter, Eliza, whom he brought with him, remarked that she liked the StoryWalk and says it was “interesting.”

StoryWalk has 16 sponsors and each business sponsored one frame. Although it is a permanent, year-round display, the featured book will be changed every couple of months. Dimoff says it’s all part of the club’s Literacy Drive. In the spring they will conduct a Kiwanis Book Drive and and at that time will collect new and gently used books, which will be distributed to children by the Salvation Army and other organizations.

“We’re excited about it and hope in the future to get another one going,” Dimoff says. The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the "Kiwanis StoryWalk on the Tridge" - its formal name - will be held on Thursday, Dec. 5th, at 8 am. The ceremony will be preceded by coffee and sweets at the Great Harvest Bread Co. on Main St. at 7:30 am.