Local Parks and Rec leader writes book after late grandfather

BOWLING GREEN, Ky.-Cameron Levis is known for being a leader in the Parks and Rec community for years and years. 

Now he’s taking that one step further by releasing his first ever children’s book about parks, called ‘Home Is Where Your Park Is’. 

“It’s just a story that’s inspired by my grandpa and I’s relationship that’s rooted so much in our love for parks,” said Levis. 

His grandpa, Dr. Alton Little, passed away in September. 

He was a professor at Western Kentucky University for 36 years, teaching recreation administration. 

“He touched thousands of lives,” said Levis. 

One of the projects was to create a dream park, with playgrounds, ball parks and trails…anything you could imagine. This creativity stuck with Cameron since he was a little boy. 

“When I looked at that project over the years of growing up, what I would see is just all these amazing things, that you can take a blank green space, a blank canvas and turn it into a community space for people to enjoy so the storyline is really based off that project,” said Levis. 

The 46-page story follows along a young boy who befriends an elderly man and they dream up a park together. 

The illustrations in the book are done by Keeley Shaw, who went to WKU with Cameron. 

“Super colorful, super whimsical, has a lot of imaginative elements. I just think this was a fun, full circle thing to work on with him, knowing him from college, and just knowing how good he is at the core,” said Shaw. 

Cameron hopes to continue on his grandfather’s legacy and love for the community’s parks. 

“That childlike connection to a local park is something that inspires me everyday in my job but I want it to inspire other adults too to just look at their park and be like what would I include in my perfect park and help our parks become better and grow and influence our community for years to come,” said Levis. 

There will be a book launch on May 15th at 5:30 p.m. at Lost River Cave.