Girl Scouts, Love on a Leash donate rocking chair to Solana Beach Library

Visitors to the Solana Beach Library have a comforting new place to sit, thanks to local Girl Scouts with support from Love on a Leash.

With profits cookie sales, Solana Beach-based Girl Scout Troop 3210 donated a brand-new rocking chair to the local library.

“This donation is helping to touch the whole community,” Branch Manager Pat Tirona said during an unveiling ceremony on June 2. “Anybody can come and sit in the chair and read a story to a child. It’s important that the youth in our community grow up and associate reading with love and comfort. That way they have a better chance of becoming readers themselves when they’re in school and beyond.”

It was the 11-member troop’s first time selling Girl Scout cookies around the community this year.

First graders Aubree Magnaghi, Ava Paulson, Carmen Long, Chloe Meunier, Conner Oxberry, Emma Evans, Hagen Lindeman, Linnea McMahon, Lola Van Dyke, Natasha Bourdette and Violet Levesque attend either Skyline School, Solana Vista or St. James Academy.

“They worked so hard this year to learn what it meant to be a Girl Scout,” said Cheryl Lindeman, who serves as co-troop leader along with Marlene Levesque. “They set a goal and they far exceeded that goal, so they did a really, really good job.”

With a goal to give back to the community, the girls looked for ways to use their money to do good.

The troop decided to donate a rocking chair to the library after learning about North County-based Love on a Leash, a nonprofit dedicated to providing animal assisted therapy. Volunteers from the San Diego Central Chapter visit the library twice a month so children can read and spend time with therapy dogs.

“It really is relaxing,” said Youth Librarian Renee Hanson, who added that the program is very popular with local kids. “Some children get anxiety when they’re learning how to read.”

“Kids aren’t afraid to read to dogs,” added Bonnie Biggs, board vice president of Love on a Leash and former branch manager of Solana Beach Library. “It brings comfort and joy, and libraries do that, too.”

Love on a Leash volunteers helped match the troop’s donations to purchase the rocking chair. A plaque on the chair, which sits in the children’s section of the library, recognizes both groups.

“One of the tenets of being a Girl Scout is to make the world a better place,” Lindeman said. “Today, you made our community and our world a better place.”

For more about Girl Scouts San Diego, visit www.sdgirlscouts.org.

For more about Love on a Leash, visit www.loveonaleash.org.