Our Story
What started as a Leadership Lake Cumberland Class project has now grown into a successful non-profit organization.
Facilitated by the Somerset-Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Lake Cumberland (LLC) is designed to take community leaders
on an expedition learning more about themselves, expanding their professional and social networks, developing an understanding of how our community works and examining important issues that impact Pulaski County’s future.
The LLC Program has prepared its graduates by designing educational programs to broaden their knowledge of Pulaski County and the critical issues affecting our region, exposing them to leadership and civic organizations and taking them on in-depth exchanges on relevant issues with leadership experts from the community and the state.
2020 Leadership Lake Cumberland Class
Chose “Readers to Leaders Story Book Trails” as our community project. We are pleased to invite families to experience great children's texts in a unique way…exercise for the brain and body! We challenge each of you to visit our Readers to Leaders Story Book Trails across Pulaski County, building your child’s literacy skills, family health and memories together!
Readers to Leaders Story Book Trails, Inc.
After the class project was completed, several participants wanted to continue to grow the trails. In 2023, a non-profit organization was formed. Since becoming a non-profit the trails have grown to other neighboring communities and continues to grow.
Our mission is to spread the enjoyment of reading to your children and families across all communities in the Commonwealth. We are taking a non-traditional approach to reading by taking you outdoors to read and learn as you go page to page. Our reading task involves the children in each story and gets them excited for the next page.
We hope you enjoy our trails as much as we do!
Make Learning Fun.
Our story book trails consist of a large arch and 18 page stands. The last stand is always dedicated to the local Dolly Imagination Library.
We start every trail with local and regional children’s book authors.
We change our stories 4 times a year with the start of each new season.
When it is time to change the books we then handpick books from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library to showcase on our trails.
Each page has a tasks at the bottom for the readers to get engaged as they move along the trail.
We have over 50 books in our library to choose from.
Our trails are designed for all children to enjoy. All trails must be on a paved path to accommodate any strollers and is handicap accessible.
On the first stand of every book there is a QR Code that can be scanned so the story is read aloud to you. This is to accommodate any vision impaired individuals.
We have secured our arch design, name and tag line as Registered Copyright and Trademarks.
We are a 501(c)3 Non-profit. Donations are tax deductible.
Reading Pals
We have also created our signature children’s craft.
Children in school are sometimes scared to read out loud in class.
They can create their own “Reading Pal” to read to and this helps get rid of those nervous jitters and be ready to read to the whole class.