StoryWalk: Pathway provides reading, exercise opportunities while honoring educator
Published 6:01 pm Thursday, July 9, 2026
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Robert Propst, center, and Christina Rary, to his right, cut the ribbon as commuity partners and council membrs look on. — Karen Kistler
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Robin Propst-Blackwell, left and Barbara Beck take a minute to read one of the storyboards on the greenway. — Karen Kistler
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Christina Rary, executive director of Rowan Literacy Council, welcomes everyone and brings opening remarks. — Karen Kistler
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Following the ceremony, the youth get some stickers and tattos at the council booth. — Karen Kistler
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Members of Sara Propst’s family, from left, her sister Barbara Beck, son Robert Propst and daughter Robin Propst Blackwell, pose for a photo on the Salisbury Greenway. — Karen Kistler
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Amy Smith, health education specialist with the Rowan County <a href="https://healthylife7.com/sharing-expertise-on-ways-kids-can-be-healthier-harvard-t-h-chan-school-of-public-health/" title="Sharing expertise on ways kids can be healthier | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health“>Public Health Department, shares comments. At left is Christina Rary, executive director of the Rowan Literacy Council. — Karen Kistler
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Campers from the Salisbury Parks and Recreation wait for the ceremony to begin. — Submitted by Kaisha Brown
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The crowd visits as they wait for the ribbon cutting and ceremony to get underway. — Submitted by Kaisha Brown
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Bridges to Healthcare students volunteer giving tattos to the children. — Submitted by Kaisha Brown
SALISBURY — Putting your walking shoes on and reading is what the newly installed StoryWalk at the Salisbury Greenway on West Park Road, Salisbury, is encouraging
As shared in a release, a StoryWalk is an “innovative outdoor experience that places pages of a children’s book along a walking path, inviting families to read together while they move.”
The community came together on July 7 at the greenway for a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the project, one that came about due to the collaborative efforts of three community partners — the Rowan Literacy Council, Rowan County Public Health Department and the City of Salisbury Parks and Recreation Department
Christina Rary, executive director of the Rowan Literacy Council, welcomed everyone and said, “this morning, we are here to celebrate the story walk, the ribbon cutting and the dedication,” and thanked the partners for making it happen along with the Propst family as she said, “the stories selected today are dedicated to Sara Propst in her memory.”
Rary noted that in collaboration with the libraries, books had been selected that reflect the growing diversity of the community and they would be the ones to change out the books once a month along with providing activities that go along with the books and sharing them with local teachers
The ceremony included comments from the various community partners as Amy Smith, health education specialist with the health department encouraged everyone to “have fun, keep moving and reading no matter how old you become.”
Smith said the StoryWalk combines reading and walking and as visitors to the greenway read each page they are moving, which helps “both your brain and your body grow stronger. Reading helps improve your literacy skills which makes you become a better reader, writer and learner” and noted that when one combines reading and moving, it builds healthy habits that can continue for a lifetime
She concluded by sharing a quote from Dr. Seuss, which says that “the more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you will go.”
The event continued with Salisbury Mayor Tamara Sheffield sharing brief remarks and said that the day represented “more than some boards on a walkway. It represents our commitment. We mean to make sure that every child, every family, every resident, every visitor to Salisbury has an opportunity to grow, to learn and succeed through the power of reading.”
In addition to the various community partners, Sheffield thanked the city of Salisbury public works department who installed the StoryWalk boards and recognized city council members Harry McLaughlin and Gemale Black, who were present as well as City Manager Jim Greene
“Everybody’s dedication working together through this helped strengthen our community, our education and our wellness,” she said
McLaughlin, who also serves as liaison with the Parks and Recreation Department, took the opportunity to thank everyone who helped to make this happen and looking out over the large crowd, he said it was “great to see so many different generations out here.”
Rakeem Brawley, assistant director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said the StoryWalk was not just a StoryWalk, but it is an “opportunity, this is a chance for us to come together as a community to empower our young people and most importantly to bring about a literacy opportunity outside the classroom” and it wraps together three things — literacy, health and fun
It was shared by multiple people that Sara Propst shared that passion of reading and walking as it was noted she taught for 30 years, teaching English at Overton Elementary as well as at Knox Junior High School and in Spencer and her family described her as a lifelong learner and lifelong reader, reading as many as 10-15 books a week, said her son Robert Propst during the ceremony. He noted that she and her younger sister Barbara Beck would trade books, and not just a few, but bags of books would go back and forth between them.
Propst’s daughter, Robin Propst Blackwell of Alamance County, a retired teacher along with Beck, said she likewise was an avid reader and spoke of walking the greenway with her mom and telling of how much her mom loved it
“Whenever we would walk the greenway, mother would always tell me whenever we got to the bridge that she would remember bringing her classes from Knox Junior High School and have them sit on the bridge eating their picnic lunch.”
In sharing about her sister, Beck shared how much she missed her and said she was “more than a sister. She was my better half.”
She said that “this is such a wonderful thing to do for her,” and Blackwell noted how her mother would have thought there were more people than her who should be recognized
“She would just be totally, totally shocked, and say she is not deserving.”
Robert Propst said his mother lived just two blocks from the greenway and therefore enjoyed walking it daily and sometimes multiple times a day, probably walking it many thousands of times, which he attributed to her living to age 95, and he would join her in walks as well
During those walks, he said she told many stories and so “the 20 story boards are a wonderful reflection of the many stories that have been told by my mother on this greenway,” he said. “It’s a wonderful honor.”
Friends from First United Church of Christ, where she was an active member, along with former teachers were at the event as well
Phyllis Little, Flo Peck and Diane Goodnight walked the trail and shared of knowing Sara from church and school and Little said she was a delight. Goodnight said that Propst would “tell it like it was” to which Little added, “she was a great teacher because of that and respected
Peck shared how she served as a tutor with the literacy council and that is what Rary told the crowd she gets to do, connect volunteer tutors with those who need help with reading, “because reading is so important,” she said. Following the ribbon cutting, many walked the greenway and looked at the storyboards while the children present had the chance to enjoy popsicles, get stickers and tattoos
“We are going to be building a stronger, healthier and more connected community with just one book, one reader, one community and one step at a time out here,” said Sheffield
