Luke Johnson, a local family physician and city council member in Alto, Texas, is passionately involved in several initiatives aimed at revitalizing the town.

Alto, a small town in Cherokee County in the Piney Woods region of East Texas, has a population of 1,044 residents. With no walking trails, parks, or playgrounds, the town has limited activities for children, especially younger ones, prompting Johnson to seek solutions to fill this void.

The idea for a community project originated from brainstorming sessions focused on identifying initiatives that align with local goals. Kristy Bice, a Senior Community Resource Manager for Communities Unlimited (CU), shared that colleague Mark Pearson attended a webinar with Texas AgriLife Extension, which introduced the WOW-E program.

Cherokee County, along with others like San Augustine, Houston, and Angelina counties, met this criterion, making them eligible for assistance. These counties are part of the T.L.L. Temple Foundation service area and are included in Texas A&M AgriLife Extension’s WOW-E program, which focuses on enhancing access to physical activities and healthy foods in communities.

Cherokee County was selected not only because of its obesity rate but also due to strong local partnerships, including a county extension agent eager to collaborate. Cherokee County fits the profile of communities the program aims to support — those that are in need, typically low-resource, and rural.

In January 2024, Bice attended mandatory training in Dallas, where she connected with Texas AgriLife Extension. They quickly identified Alto as having a need. AgriLife Extension provides significant resources, including landscape and municipal engineers for planning parks, trails, playgrounds, and even things like basketball courts and ponds for fishing.

This collaboration led to the development of two main projects: a Story Walk and a new park system in Alto.

“The Story Walk is part of our strategy to achieve small wins while working on larger projects to enhance the town,” Johnson said. “Our goal is to make the town more walkable and establish city parks, as we currently don’t have any. The Little League is also expanding, and this initiative allows us to combine these efforts.”

The Story Walk involves placing semi-permanent signs along a walking path, displaying pages from children’s books at intervals to encourage walking and reading. “The aim is to avoid temporary events and instead have a constant feature in the parks once they are established,” Johnson added.

Additionally, Alto plans to develop two parks. The first park, on a 10-acre lot donated by the city, will feature a walking garden with a pavilion, native grasses and flowers, and a canopy for continuous shade in the summer.

The second park, for the Little League, will expand the existing facilities with an adjacent 10-acre lot, adding parking, a multipurpose field for soccer and flag football, and possibly a bike path and frisbee golf course. This park will focus on recreation, forming part of the existing sports complex.

Each park will have a distinct vibe: the first focusing on health and wellness, and the second on activities for kids and sports. There will be some overlap, such as benches and swings, making both parks multipurpose to some degree. The parks project aims to make the town more walkable, thereby improving residents’ health and providing economic benefits to the community.

CU’s role is to support the Story Walk, potentially helping with costs for books in both English and Spanish to ensure inclusivity. The first Story Walk was on August 17, 2024, with another planned for Alto Homecoming on Sept. 7. The idea is to engage all community members with different themes throughout the year, like Black History Month or Hispanic Heritage Month.

The construction timeline for a Story Walk program varies based on its scope. It may start as a temporary pilot to gauge interest, with the potential to expand into a permanent initiative as support grows. In contrast, larger projects like park systems often take years, requiring thorough planning, community engagement, and financial backing. Despite the time involved, there is confidence that the right support will help move these projects forward.

“I’m very excited to bring these opportunities to Alto and partner with the Extension Office,” Bice said.

CU has helped connect all these resources, saving the community costs for landscape and municipal engineers provided by A&M AgriLife Extension free of charge. The Texas Department of Transportation’s regional representative is also interested in helping create safe pathways to the school across a major highway in Alto.

Funding for these projects will come from Texas AgriLife through a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) federal program. This marks AgriLife’s first effort with the Alto community and the grant cycle is designed to support communities for up to five years.

“My role involves pushing initiatives forward and helping local advocates build support systems,” said Anna Stehling, Planning Program Coordinator at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, leading the WOW-E Program in Alto. “I’ve enjoyed seeing the community’s excitement as their plans come together. I’m excited to see what unfolds. This community has already shown a strong capacity for growth and a real willingness to get involved.”

“I’m excited about this project and really glad Kristy is on board,” Johnson said. “I believe this will be very beneficial for everyone in the community.”

“Kristy has been so helpful,” added Stehling. “She truly understands the community and has been important in building and strengthening the team from the start. I don’t know where we’d be without her.”