43
Canfield Girl Scouts donate books to hospital
Photo
Neighbors | Submitted.Canfield's Girl Scout Troop 420, from left; (front) Peyton Munera, Holly Eberly, Abby Palmer; (back) Julie Porterfield, Ella Mitchell, Grace Ramun, Libby Finsen, Anna Dudash and Emily Porterfield decided to buy books for children in the hostpital with the money they earned selling Girl Scout cookies..Troup leader Vicki Palmer contaced a wholesaler about purchasing books and the wholesaler decided to donate a box full of books. They will be donated to patients at Akron Children's Hospital of the Mahoning Valley Monday at 4:45 p.m.......
Squeals from 10 excited youngsters filled the lobby of Akron Children’s Hospital on Monday evening.
It was Girl Scout Troop 420 of Canfield presenting the hospital with a donation.
“Our leader told us we had to donate books because the children in the hospital don’t have anything to do but just sit there,” said Ella Mitchell, 8.
A call to order by troop co-leader Vicki Palmer quickly silenced the girls, who quietly raised three fingers in the traditional Scout salute.
Then, wearing their sashes and badges, the girls emptied paper bags full of picture books onto a cart.
DeAnne Bunevich, the child-life specialist at the hospital, thanked them.
Bunevich said she suggested that the troop donate small, chunky pictures books with cardboard pages for younger children.
As sisters Julie and Emily Porterfield pointed out, “they’re toddler books.”
Bunevich said a book cart goes around to children in the hospital each day passing out books patients can keep and take home.
“Donations like this help because we don’t have the budget to do this, but we want to promote reading,” Bunevich said.
Palmer said the girls decided to use some of the money the troop received from cookie sales to purchase 100 books to donate to the hospital. But when Palmer contacted the Mahoning Valley Distributing Agency Inc., she received a nice surprise.
“The distributor contacted some publishers who said they would donate the books,” Palmer said. “So the girls wrote thank-you’s to them.”
In total, Troop 420 donated 63 books to the hospital.
Donation opportunities through the hospital can be found online at www.akronchildrens.org.