Children and parents are expected to crowd the railway platform at Austin Steam Train Association on Sunday, Oct. 4 for the inaugural Reading on the Rails festival. The festival will last from 2-6 p.m. and will include children’s book authors and local leaders reading stories aboard the organization’s stationary train cars. ASTA Executive Director Lil Serafine said the event combines railroad history and literacy. The event is free to attend, and guests are asked to bring gently used books, which will be donated to one of the event’s partners, Leander ISD Educational Excellence Foundation. LEEF is a nonprofit organization that supports LISD by sponsoring teacher innovation, promoting college and career readiness, and encouraging children’s love for literature and reading, Executive Director Gloria Gonzales-Dholakia said. “Reading on the Rails is a perfect way to get people over to the train station … and also [promote] this love of literacy,” Gonzales-Dholakia said. “Young children love the train. … We’re going to have at least two authors there reading their books. We’re going to do an arts-and-crafts [program] in one car. And in another car we’re going to do a creative writing [exercise].” The Cedar Park Public Library is also an event partner. Sponsors include Cedar Park Regional Medical Center, Prosperity Bank and The Williamson Museum, Serafine said. Throughout the afternoon Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers and Red Horn Coffee House and Brewing Co. will provide beverages and snacks. Guests can also see ASTA’s antique Horse Car Museum that was used to store railroad artifacts. Those artifacts are housed in the railroad museum, which opened in October 2014, she said. “Families will be able to see [the Horse Express car] first before the public,” Serafine said.
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Reading on the Rails event rolls into Cedar Park Oct. 4
Reading on the Rails event rolls into Cedar Park Oct. 4
SB
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