Local Girl Scouts add to Marrowbone's collection
By Sara Sims
associate@newsprogress.com

Walking into the Marrowbone Public Library in Bethany last Saturday, you would see young girls running around, smiling and laughing with each other in their blue vests and brown sashes adorned with colorful patches. One might ask, who are these young girls and why are they assembled at the library?

These girls are Girl Scouts, a club that girls may join to learn many skills to help not only themselves but others as well. And on this day, that is just what this bunch was doing.

Girl Scout Troop 3056 of Bethany is composed of 22 girls, who are part of the ranks of Brownies and Daisies. Daisies are comprised of younger girls and Brownies the older girls. But together, these young girls raised $200 for the Marrowbone Library.

“I was teaching the girls to give back to our community, and they had a few places to choose from," said Troop leader, Andi McArdle. "The girls chose the library because about 95 percent of the girls come to the library.”

The young ladies earned the $200 through cookie sales, in which they sold over 3200 boxes in a two-week span with door-to-door sales. In the process of earning the money, the girls earned a community service patch and a cookie sales patch, which will be placed on their sashes and vests.

The library has already used the money wisely, buying approximately 61 books for the library. The girls had pre-chosen a list of books that they enjoy and are interested in. The books will now help expand the number of existing books that the library has to offer. Books from "American Girl Innerstar University" to "Tales From Pixie Hollow" are now available to be checked out. If a book isn’t at the library, the librarians can place a person on the wait list for when the book is returned.

Sally Ascenzo, co-director of the library, stated that even with the emergence of Kindles, the library has not seen a lag of patrons. “I use e-books when I go on vacation on my smartphone or my Ipad, and when I’m home, I use regular books. About three of our patrons have switched to Kindles, but they do come back sometimes for regular books.”

The new books will also help for the library’s summer reading program, which is available for all school age children with prizes also available. The aspect of the summer reading program is for kids to read over the summer. For every book a child reads, he or she will become eligible for a prize. The summer reading program is June 7 through July 14.

Ascenzo and her co-director, Lisa Spracklen stated reading, especially for young kids to read in the summer, is important.

“They get out of school, and they don’t do anything all summer that is fairly scholastic,” said Spracklen.

“It keeps them on course and keeps them ready to read in the fall,” added Ascenzo.

What is Ascenzo’s favorite part of her job? Entering new books. “When these girls gave us the money for new books, it was just the best fun. It was like Christmas!”

The list and books are now available at the Marrowbone Public Library in Bethany. The library is open 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday, 9 a.m.- 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday.

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