A Story Begins on the Path
A family rounds the bend on the walking path at Old Celina Park, and a child stops short at a laminated page mounted near the trail’s edge. There is a sentence there, part of a longer story, and the next panel is a few dozen steps ahead. That is the idea behind the Storybook Trail at Old Celina Park, 12670 FM 428 — reading not as a stationary activity, but as something that moves your feet and pulls you forward.
The trail is one piece of a broader summer push from the Celina Public Library at 142 N. Ohio St., which has launched its annual Summer Reading Program for 2026. The program is open to participants of all ages. Readers track the minutes they spend with books and earn prizes as they go, a structure simple enough for a kindergartner and engaging enough for a retiree working through a stack of novels.
More Than a Log Sheet
The library has built out a full calendar around the reading program rather than letting it stand alone as a passive challenge. For children, the summer schedule includes interactive storytimes, STEM activities, and creative workshops held at the Ohio Street branch throughout June and beyond. The goal is to give kids a reason to show up, not just a reason to keep a tally at home.
Adults have their own lane. The library is offering career workshops, computer training sessions, and financial literacy programs during the summer season. Those offerings reflect how the library already operates during the rest of the year — as a practical resource for people at different stages of life, not only a place to borrow fiction.
For readers who want a purely social outlet, the “On the Same Page” adult book club meets twice a month. In June, the group gathered on the first Tuesday at 10 a.m. and again on the first Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Both sessions are held at the library, where members discuss a shared title and, inevitably, a great deal more.
Why the Trail at Old Celina Park Matters
The Storybook Trail adds a dimension that a library building cannot offer on its own: open air, shade trees, and the particular kind of focus that comes from walking. Children who resist sitting still with a book often respond differently when the book is spread across a quarter mile of park path. The format also makes reading a family activity in a way that feels natural rather than obligatory. A parent pushing a stroller can follow the story at the same pace as an older sibling running ahead to find the next page.
Old Celina Park already draws families for its green space and recreational facilities. Placing the Storybook Trail there during the summer months means the library’s reach extends well beyond its four walls on N. Ohio St., meeting people where they already spend weekend mornings.
A Glimpse of What’s Coming
The summer programming arrives at a particular moment for Celina’s library system. A new 26,209-square-foot library is under active development as the centerpiece of Celina’s Downtown Center, with a winter 2026 opening anticipated. That building is designed to include innovative spaces for study, collaboration, and programming — a significant expansion in physical capacity for a city that has grown rapidly and put consistent pressure on existing facilities.
For now, the Ohio Street branch carries the load, and by most appearances it is doing so without complaint. The summer calendar is packed, the Storybook Trail is out at the park, and the reading logs are filling up.
How to Get Involved
Residents who want to participate in the Summer Reading Program can stop by the Celina Public Library at 142 N. Ohio St. to pick up materials and get started. The program runs through the summer, and the prize structure is designed to reward consistent effort rather than volume — so readers who chip away steadily through June and July are just as much in the game as those who finish books in a single afternoon.
The Storybook Trail is available at Old Celina Park during regular park hours. No registration is required to walk the trail, which makes it one of the more accessible entry points into the broader summer programming.
For a city that spends considerable energy planning new schools, new roads, and new commercial corridors, the summer reading program is a quieter investment — in attention spans, in habits, and in the straightforward pleasure of following a story to its end.