Imagination
Library
http://www.imaginationlibrary.com
In 1996, Dolly Parton launched an
exciting new effort to benefit the children of her home county in east Tennessee. Dolly wanted to foster a love of reading
among her county’s preschool children and their families. She wanted children to be excited about books and to feel
the magic that books can create. Moreover, she could insure that every child would have books, regardless of their family’s
income.
So she decided to mail a brand new, age appropriate book each month to every child under 5 in Sevier County.
With the arrival of every child’s first book, the classic The Little Engine That Could ™, every child could now
experience the joy of finding their very own book in their mail box. These moments continue each month until the child turns
5—and in their very last month in the program they receive Look Out Kindergarten Here I Come.
Needless to
say the experience has been a smashing success. So much so that many other communities clamored to provide the Imagination
Library to their children. Dolly thought long and hard about it and decided her Foundation should develop a way for other
communities to participate. The Foundation asked a blue ribbon panel of experts to select just the right books and secured
Penguin Group USA to be the exclusive publisher for the Imagination Library. Moreover a database was built to keep track of
the information.
Consequently, in March of 2000 she stood at the podium of The National Press Club in Washington,
D.C. and revealed the plan for other communities to provide the Imagination Library to their children. And as only Dolly can
say it, she wanted to “put her money where her mouth is – and with such a big mouth that’s a pretty large
sum of money” and provide the books herself to the children of Branson, Missouri and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina –
communities where her businesses now operate. If other leaders in their communities were willing to do the same, well something
big might just happen.
Here’s
how it works:
A community must make the program accessible to all preschool
children in their area. The community pays for the books and mailing, promotes the program, registers the children, and enters
the information into the database.
From there The Dollywood Foundation
takes over and manages the system to deliver the books to the home.
(To read what the Imagination
Library has accomplished in 2009, click here. )
