Three local businesses on the Downtown Gainesville Square recently collaborated to bring interactive lessons to elementary students in Hall County.
The Storybook Market, Kilwins and Johnny’s Pizza created a three-in-one field trip that allowed students to visit downtown Gainesville and learn about each respective business in ways that applied to each group’s curriculum standards.
Haley Byers, co-owner of the Storybook Market, told AccessWDUN she was inspired to reach out to neighboring businesses after schools expressed interest in taking trips to the shop when it first arrived on the square in 2023.
“Back in the spring, we kind of brainstormed on how to make it work and what it would look like,” Byers recalled. “And it's just been so great and so smooth and a really fun field trip for all of us to be involved in.”
Byers explained the three businesses each choose a standard to introduce to students. While the trips have been running since the beginning of the school year, she said the final tour, which welcomed students from Chestnut Mountain Elementary School on Nov. 20, was slightly different from their average story time.
“Teachers for the storybook market get to decide what unit of study we get to cover,” Byers said. “For instance, this week, they wanted us to cover turkeys because Thanksgiving is next week. So of course, we picked a story that matches that theme and then an activity or a craft. And this week we had Hopewell Farms come in with a live turkey and help us talk about turkeys and teach about turkeys. And then Elachee Nature Science Center also allowed us to borrow some items to show what turkeys are all about.”
Byers co-owns the children’s bookstore alongside Jennifer Adams, who carries a background in early childhood education. Adams explained the shop aims to encourage literacy among children in the community.
“We want this to be a place where memories are created,” Adams said “We want them just to come and experience and see, be a part of it and just play in the fun areas that we have set up.”
The Storybook Marketplace offers a variety of services, including story times, event planning, and more. To learn more about its availability, click here.
The students were divided into three groups, which rotated around to visit each business. Owner of Johnny’s Pizza in Gainesville, Chip Knickerbocker, addressed student’s standards about learning the steps to completing a task by teaching classes how to make pizza.
Knickerbocker shared what he most enjoyed about interacting with students during his demonstration.
“I think my favorite part is watching the kids and their faces when we make the pizza, because I get flour everywhere,” he said. “And a lot of the time, they are just blown away by how much of a mess I get to make. And then the other part that I really enjoy is, at the end, we toss a pizza dough out over the crowd and let somebody try to catch it…the utter excitement that they have really blows my mind. To be a child at that age, and just to be able to experience it and see it through their eyes, It’s a lot of fun.”
Johnny’s Pizza joined downtown Gainesville just over a year ago. Knickerbocker said in that time, the store has enjoyed becoming part of the community.
“The Gainesville community has really embraced us, and I was surprised at the amount of support that we got right out the gate and that they've continued to have,” he said. “We really love being a part of the community. We enjoy doing all of the events up on the square.”
Meanwhile, at Kilwins Gainesville, President and Owner Genia Reid taught the groups about the history of chocolate with her “From Cacao Bean to Confection” lesson. Reid, who worked in education for 28 years as a media specialist prior to beginning her career with Kilwins, began her lessons by allowing students to interact with the very first stage of the chocolate-making process.
“The first thing [we] do when the students arrive is we put a cocoa bean in their hand and we try to see if they can guess what it is. And most of them, I think we've only had one student, actually know what it is… the whole idea is showing them and teaching them ‘this is where chocolate starts.’”
The lesson then walked students through the entire chocolate making process, and the history of the Kilwins brand. Reid shared how the trips have allowed her to engage with the community.
“There's a lot of enthusiasm,” Reid said. “One of the best parts is the parents are really engaged in these field trips so any given day we're going to have about 6 or 7 parents with their child,and so the parents get to learn about Kilwins, our products, and the history of it.”
Kilwins plans to continue to collaborate with businesses throughout the holiday season by sponsoring a Nutcracker Scavenger Hunt throughout stores in Downtown Gainesville.
From Dec. 1-31, participants will be able to collect a guide from Kilwins, then, they will search for hidden nutcrackers in various shop windows. Once participants find the hidden nutcrackers they will write down the hidden word that will be at each participating location. Participants will then submit the completed guide to Kilwins for a chance to enter weekly drawings and giveaways with the business. The scavenger hunt is free to participate in.
