By Gail Peckler-Dziki
Correspondent
Dogs are considered the best friends humankind has. Dogs love us when we are crabby, before we’ve had a shower and love us when no one else seems to do so.
They don’t tell us we have a food splatter on our shirt or that we need to brush our gross teeth.
If it takes a while to get the words out, they don’t care as long as we talk to them. They don’t judge us.
The Community Library offers Paws to Read, a program for children that offers an opportunity to read to a specially trained dog.
Community Library children’s librarian Anna Paul came here with the idea in 2014.
“Both of the libraries in Illinois where I worked prior to coming to Community Library had a Paws to Read program,” she said. “so I knew the benefits of the program.”
Readers pre-register for a 15-minute time slot with a dog-and-owner team, and all first-time readers must have a signed permission slip on file with the library before they can participate.
The dogs trained as therapy dogs participate with their owners in venues other than the Paws to Read program.
Gail Katzman, a retired teacher for 30 years, enjoys the time spent with young readers.
Katzman brings her low-keyed Greyhound, Chase, to the Veterans Hospital in Union Grove twice a month and also does twice monthly in-home hospice visits.
While Paws to Read offers children a chance to practice reading out loud to a non-judgmental furry friend, it also gives children that might have a fear of dogs to be around them in a safe, non-threatening environment.
Krista Loecher said her son reads well, but is reluctant to read out loud, and has a fear of being around dogs.
“He is a high-level reader and is gaining experience to speak out loud in a safe environment where is getting to know dogs,” Loecher said.
“We have been here since the beginning,” she stated, “and we will be here again.”
The program, offered once a month, usually on the third Monday, at the Salem branch from 4-5 p.m.
The next Paws to Read session are scheduled for April 18.
The program started in January 2015 with two reading teams, which allowed for a maximum of eight readers.
Currently, there are four teams participating, which allow accommodation for up to 16 readers in the program each month.
For more information call 843-3348 and ask for the youth services desk. Sign up at the library.
The full story appears in the April 8 print edition of the Westosha Report