Read Ready Covington event Wednesday launches
6th A-Z Walking Tour as interactive educational fun for kids
COVINGTON, Ky. – Covington kiddos, are you ready to accept your mission?
The mission is one of intrigue, requiring a keen eye, a spirit of adventure, and the tenacity to stay on task until the final of 26 “assignments” is complete.
It all starts at 5 p.m. Wednesday in the Monte Casino neighborhood, where the Read Ready Covington early literacy program launches its sixth A-Z Walking Tour – a veritable alphabet scavenger hunt – in a ceremony held at 2299 Benton Road.
“The A-Z Walking Tour is an authentic way to nurture curiosity, encourage problem solving, and connect oral language to the printed word and to symbols,” said Read Ready Covington Director Mary Kay Connolly. “It’s fun. It’s a game. And the kids love it. Every time they “find” a sign, they act like it’s the first time they’ve ever seen one.”
Monte Casino is the sixth neighborhood in Covington to receive a set of 26 signs and participate in the tour. The other sets of 26 are located in West Latonia, Peaselburg, Austinburg, Lewisburg, and the Central Business District. Connolly said the Monte Casino tour came about at the request of neighborhood residents.
Angela Duncan, who lives in Monte Casino, became familiar with the walking word tours during the Covid-19 pandemic. She took her sons to Peaselburg to participate in the hunt for words because there wasn’t one in her family’s neighborhood.
“They liked the little passport (book) and drawing their version of the signs,” said Duncan, who thought it would be a great activity for families to do together in her own neighborhood.
Duncan and her mother, Vicki Davis Cook, approached Connolly about creating a tour. Duncan helped select specific locations for the signs in the neighborhood, which Covington’s Public Works Department then installed.
“The activity is a great way to meet neighbors that you might not know,” said Duncan. “This gives us something to do together and helps the younger kids learn their words. The Spanish version on one side of the signs is an added bonus for them.”
At Wednesday’s event, “passport” books for the A-Z Walking Tour will be given out, as will hot dogs and beverages.
- Families pick up a pink passport at the event, or at City Hall at 20 W. Pike St. or the Kenton County Public Library at 502 Scott Blvd.
- Follow one of the maps in the back of the book to search for pink metal signs with words and corresponding pictures.
- Once you locate a sign, kids write that word in their passport booklets and draw a picture of the sign. Don’t stop until you find all 26 letters.
- Then -- and here’s the really good part – turn in your completed passport to the Covington Public Library for a prize.
The Read Ready Covington family and community literacy initiative is led by a collaboration of literacy champions across the city and region, working together so that today’s young children will be tomorrow’s educated and engaged citizens. For more information, see the RRC webpage.
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