Tuesday, June 24, 2025
78 ° Clear
78 ° Clear
Some may not know the story of “Hansel and Gretel”, nor have had the tale told to them by strategically placed illustrative storyboards in the middle of the woods. The Huntingdon Valley Library Teen Advisory Board’s fifth annual Fairy Tale Trail provided this unique experience for kids.
Catered towards toddlers through 2nd graders, the Fairy Tale Trail was a self-guided, circular half mile path around Lower Moreland Park featuring a twist on the story of “Hansel and Gretel”. It was open from May 11 -17, from sunrise to sunset.
Beth Bilus, head of the teen and adult services at the Huntingdon Valley Library, said the board, made up of 75 local high school students, came up with the idea during the COVID lockdown. They were trying to create a program that did not have to take place indoors.
“So we asked, ‘how do we come up with a way to contribute to the community when we can't sit in a room together and work with people in person?’”, Bilus said. “It's just one of those things that was really successful and the community loved it. And so now five years later, it's something that we're still doing.”
Femmi Baram, a senior at Lower Moreland High School who joined the board in her sophomore year, said the board had to come up with a “happy ending” to make the story more child-friendly. For reference, the original story features a riveting, yet surprisingly gory climax in which Gretel shoves the witch into a flaming oven and slams it shut.
Anna Galdo, a senior at Lower Moreland High School who joined the board in her freshman year, elaborated on the child-friendly “twist” they included from the original “Hansel and Gretel” story. “In our storyboards, the witch wasn’t actually bad,” Galdo said. “We purposely set it during the winter so that the witch puts Hansel and Gretel in the oven to warm them.”
Galdo said she believes children trekking through the trail can learn a lesson to “not take things fully at face value,” but also she saw the project as simply an exciting event for them.
“We wanted them to just have fun with a sense of entertainment in the park so they were maybe not as bored as they would be just walking around,” Galdo said.
In the past, the trail has been guided by stories such as “The Snail and the Frog”, “Alice in Wonderland”, “Goldilocks and the Three Camels”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Three Little Pigs and One Big Bad Wolf.”
Each program the Advisory Board develops, including the Fairy Tale Trail event, is facilitated by its own committees made up of board members. Previous board members created all the board committees that currently exist, to which Bilus said have been “honed” throughout the years. Other programs have included helping elementary school students read and aiding senior citizens in navigating the Internet.
Adding on, she believes the committees provide them with leadership experience that may help them in their future lives and careers.
“Within each of these groups, there’s planning involved and they need to move through steps,” Bilus said. “For the Fairy Tale Trail committee, I needed them to decide what story they were going to work on, who was going to write it, who was going to edit it, who was going to illustrate it, and who was going to come and set it up.” The Fairy Tale Trail is not the only program the board participates in yearly.
Organized by Lower Moreland Township, “Trunk or Treat” is a favorite for many on the board, including Rachel Goldy, a sophomore student at Lower Moreland High School. For this Halloween program, the library participates with other organizations, and the board chooses the library’s theme, as well as making decorations, costumes, and tables during the drive-through.
“The different organizations at Lower Moreland just open up their trunks where they keep the candy. When cars drive by, we put some candy in the kids' bags,” Goldy said. “[This year’s theme] was the “Addams Family”. We made little goodie bags with bookmarks, candy, pencils, all that fun stuff.”
With events such as the Fairy Tale Trail and Trunk or Treat, the board’s volunteer work may not be viewed as traditional volunteering. This is partly why Sarah Goldy, an 11th grade student at Lower Moreland High School who joined the board her sophomore year, and so many other students have decided to devote their time to the board.
“A lot of times when you're volunteering, you're in the same place at the same time every week. But in the library, you can choose what you want to do,” Goldy said. You can be part of the in-house shift where you can volunteer every week, or if there's a certain week where you don't have as much to do, you might want to volunteer for three events, and you can do that.”
Whether it’s crafts, an imaginative storytelling trail for toddlers, handing out fun-size candy from a car’s trunk in a parking lot, or helping senior citizens surf the web, the library and its Teen Advisory Board is very special to Sarah Goldy, who she says functions as a “catch-all” for the community.
“There's people here at any time. There's puzzles that people can do. There's older people on the computers. There's a teen section. There's younger kids who hang out,” Goldy said. ”So, originally I participated on the Advisory Board for volunteer hours, but now I also participate because I like the fact that this board contributes so much to the community.”
The Teen Advisory Board’s creative events, like the Fairy Tale Trail, show how young people can make a lasting impact on their community, bringing joy, learning, and connection to all ages.
