SHEBOYGAN – Emily Fisher has been a regular visitor to Maywood Park from Sheboygan since before she could remember, but she didn’t know the history of the park until recently.
Now a senior at North High School, Fisher wrote, illustrated, and installed a children’s storytelling trail in the park to promote environmentalism and honor Ellwood and Mary May, who donated the land for the park (formerly called Ellwood H. May Environmental Park) to the Town of Sheboygan four decades ago, according to the park’s website.
Fisher’s book follows the story of Sprout, a maple tree in Maywood that grows as Maywood transforms from farmland used for cattle ranching into the beautiful parkland it is today, she said. declared.
Maywood is located at 3615 Mueller Road in Sheboygan. The land was a farm used for cattle ranching in the 1950s, before the May couple donated it to the town of Sheboygan in 1973 for recreational purposes.
Fisher completed the project through North High School Innovation granta one-year program designed to select juniors and seniors to create a project they are passionate about.
The Innovator Fellowship was developed in 2013 as a collaboration between North High School and Jake’s Café, a coworking space designed to nurture a creative community. Each year, the scholarship committee interviews North High School applicants and selects three to four students to pursue a unique project.
After:North High Teens Share Their Talent at Jake’s Café (2016)
After:From Art to Bubble Tea: Sheboygan Teens Explore Passions and Improve Community (2018)
The guiding principle that inspired Fisher’s project was environmental stewardship, and when she later signed on to Maywood, she was inspired to write about the park itself, she said.
“Being a good environmental steward doesn’t have to be such a huge project,” Fisher said. “Just being aware of this can make a big difference in the long run.”
The idea for the storybook trail came from one she saw in Washington state four years ago.
“When I saw this, I wrote it down in this little diary of things I wanted to do, so it really inspired me,” she said.
Fisher created and installed the signage with help from North High School’s carpentry team and technical education teacher John Juckem.
“It’s really amazing how it turned out,” Fisher said. “One of the hardest parts was finding my artistic voice for it, because digitally drawing these images and creating the whole book was a totally new process for me.”
The Storybook Trail is near the Maple Loop Trail, among maple trees that have grown in Maywood for generations, Fisher said.
She will be attending the University of Idaho next year to study interior design.
Jake’s, a Lakeland Community – the new name of Jake’s Café after him was acquired by Lakeland University this year — will continue to host creative communities and startups and be a hub for experiential learning.
Contact Maya Hilty at 920-400-7485 or MHilty@sheboygan.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @maya_hilty.
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