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Stony Brook • old Field • Strong’S neck • Setauket • eaSt Setauket • South Setauket • Poquot t
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631-360-0004
April 7, 2016
Volume 41, No. 6
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Real Estate • M ortgages • Ins urance
Greater Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce
Health & Wellness Fest PaGe B1
BARK at Clark
Smiles in Setauket
Website classifies North Shore area as one of state’s happiest spots
PaGe a3
Photo by Giselle Barkley
caroline Woo, above, plays with therapy dog Beau, inset. She named her black labrador stuffed animal after her regular reading companion, Malibu.
By giSelle Barkley
A book and a calm canine companion are all Caroline Woo needs to practice reading. Every Thursday afternoon, this 11-year-old from Setauket visits the Emma S. Clark Memorial Library for its Books Are Read to K-9s program. Caroline joined the program and fell in love with it last November, after her mother, Eydie Woo, learned of the club. But BARK didn’t just allow her to interact with a calm canine, it also improved her reading skills.
Last month for her birthday, Caroline asked her friends and family to make a donation to the program instead of buying presents. The $270 she received went toward training more dogs for the club and other therapy dog-related programs. For Caroline, reading to Patchogue Rotary Animal Assisted Therapy certified dog Malibu, a black Labrador, helped her tackle the big words she struggled to say when reading out loud. “Malibu, she’ll … just sit down and they’ll kind of listen and it is better because the
dogs, they mostly maintain one expression,” Caroline said. “It’s easier since she’s less judgmental than people” According to Malibu’s handler and owner Fred Dietrich, the program hasn’t only helped her reading skills, but it’s also boosted her confidence. He added that he’s seen Caroline become more outspoken since she joined BARK. Her mother agreed with Dietrich, saying Caroline “feels comfortable with Malibu and it’s translating into other settings.” The fifth-grader met
Malibu when she started the program and they’ve been regular reading partners since. Malibu, like all eight dogs involved in the reading program, is PRAAT certified. Stony Brook resident JoAnn Goldwasser established the Doggie Reading Club program, which is called BARK at the library, three years ago after learning about a similar program in Chicago. The Windy City’s Sit Stay Read program has served kids in Chicago’s inner-city schools for several BaRK continued on page a12