ALTON - Alton High School students and the Hayner Public Library District have collaborated to publish a new book.
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“Get Outside! A Survey of Alton Area Parks Past and Present” was researched and written by Reneé B. Johnson with Hayner’s Genealogy and Local History Library. Lexa Browning-Needham, the project supervisor and graphic communications teacher at Alton High School, worked with her Graphic Design Club students to compile photography, complete the layout, and publish the 88-page hardcover book.
“We wanted to encourage the community to get outside and appreciate the local parks,” said Reese Hafertepe, a student who worked on the project. “The book covers every park in the Fosterburg, Godfrey, and Alton district area that the Hayner Library caters to. We just mainly wanted to encourage people to experience the community and get out.”
Johnson explained that the club began working on the book in September 2025. The students focused on taking photos and creating graphics while Johnson devoted her time to researching and writing about the history of each park in present-day Alton.
What she found during her research surprised her. Some of the parks were designated as public lands since the original 1818 plats of Illinois and Alton were created. A few parks started as swamplands and transitioned into public spaces.
Most of the parks in Alton were created by people and organizations who donated land, money and time. Johnson gained a deeper appreciation for the parks and the people in Alton’s history who led to their creation.
“What I found in the research really opened my eyes. I took the parks for granted,” Johnson said. “You have all these organizations and people contributing to having a park…The more that I learned about the parks and how they came about, this really was about community.”
While Johnson was researching and writing, Hafertepe and her five classmates were envisioning the book. Hafertepe suggested creating a four-page spread for Gordon Moore Park. Her mother would pick her up after school, and the two would “dash out” together to the parks so she could take photos in the late fall lighting. Only 17 images in the book were not taken by the students themselves.
The students also learned more about communicating and working together. They would pitch ideas to one another or show what they had completed the week before and then receive feedback and make adjustments. It was a collaborative process that encouraged students to try new ideas and experiment.
Hafertepe added that she is excited to claim Alton as her hometown. She believes Alton “really is such a great place to live,” and this appreciation was reinforced by the project.
“There’s so many hidden beauties in Alton that I really discovered during this project,” she said. “It was just overall such an amazing experience, and I’m so glad I was able to be a part of it. I learned so much just by being here.”
Johnson was impressed by the students’ “commitment to make this work.” She has collaborated with Browning-Needham on two previous Alton-focused books, and she said “Get Outside! A Survey of Alton Area Parks Past and Present” was the hardest one yet. But it was worth it to see the students create something from nothing.
“It is all about watching these young people grapple with and make sense of,” Johnson said. “For me, that is intoxicating.”
All books created by Alton High School students and Hayner Public Library District employees are available for purchase at Hayner’s Genealogy and Local History Library.
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