Girl Scout Troop 35579 used the Little Free Library concept to build a pet pantry for dogs and cats. It now stands outside Portage’s Woodland Park dog park.
“People have been asking for help with animals. They can’t afford food,” troop leader Karen Naumann, of Portage, said.
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Heidi O’Bannion, of Lake Station, and Serenity Nelson, of Portage, built it for their Silver award, the second-highest honor for Girl Scouts.
The project started with four girls in 2024, Naumann said, with her cancer journey causing a pause, but two kids dropped out of Girl Scouts before O’Bannion and Nelson completed it.
Naumann emailed Barb Lusco, the parks department’s maintenance director, for permission to erect the pet pantry at the dog park.
“When I first heard from you, I was like, oh my God, what a wonderful idea,” Lusco said.
“We were all trying to come up with an idea all together that we could all agree on,” O’Bannion said. Runner-up ideas included bat boxes, bee houses and butterfly habitat.
The girls researched the ideas, planned it out and found a kit on Amazon. “We all sat there for a couple of hours and looked at all our phones,” she said.
The box has plastic-coated wood to make the pet pantry last longer in Northwest Indiana’s harsh weather. Naumann’s husband added a latch to the design.
It took about an hour to assemble, O’Bannion said. She didn’t have trouble using the tools. “I’m a truck driver’s daughter.”
The troop picked out pet food and treats, including tennis balls for the dogs and toys for the cats, to stock the pet pantry on Friday. They bought so much there were items left over.
That’s OK, Naumann said, because she lives nearby and visits the dog park multiple times a week. “I encourage people, too, if they want to bring stuff,” she said.
Mayor Austin Bonta was on hand to watch them stock the pet pantry. “This is great. This is exactly the kind of stuff we get excited about,” he said. The girls saw what was needed and just did it themselves. “That was amazing.”
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“There aren’t many pet pantries,” O’Bannion said, so the girls decided that idea had the most merit.
Even though it’s at a dog park, cats deserved attention, too. “There’s people that own dogs and cats. There were multiple animals to pick from,” O’Bannion said.
Nelson balked at the idea of a pet pantry for pet snakes, perhaps stocked with live mice. “I would actually throw up,” she said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.