Over the last several days, you may have seen dozens of area children walking the streets of Tyrone during the day.
A newcomer to town might wonder what it was all about.
It turns out, it is a tradition for elementary school students from the area to participate in walking tours of the downtown Tyrone area.
Retired teacher, Lou Beringer, conducted the tours with third grade students from Tyrone Area and Saint Matthews on four separate days during the past two weeks. Some students from the Grier School also participated.
Beringer has been conducting the tours since the mid 1990s, giving hundreds of area children a chance to learn about the town’s history.
“Suzanne Ohl and Nancy Smith had the idea of putting it (the walking tour) into the schools as part of the Historical Society,” explained Beringer.
In advance of the actual tour, Beringer does a presentation at school to give the children some preliminary information.
“What I did is tell them how Tyrone got started,” Beringer told The Daily Herald. “It was because of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Tyrone forges and the furnaces that were in the area.
“The Historical Society has a walking tour pamphlet which I incorporate into my walking tour for the elementary students,” said Beringer. “When I first started doing this we did it with the fifth graders and then we switched it to third grade. About four years ago they put it in the third grade curriculum.
“Different teachers have been a big help,” said Beringer. “All the fifth grade and third grade teachers, for example, with the fifth graders, Nancy Aults put pictures of the walking tour on the computer. We went into the computer classrooms (to view the tour on the computers).”
The tour includes many stops including the business district in the 1000 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, the VFW building, the National Guard Armory, the YMCA, the Tyrone Municipal Building and a favorite for the children, Gardners Candies on West 10th Street.
For more information on the walking tour of historic Tyrone contact the Tyrone Area Historical Society at 684-5141.
