RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Country music legend Dolly Parton is helping kids dream big with her love of reading, and soon, that love of reading will come to Richmond.
In 1995, she created Dolly Parton’s Imagination library. The effort was inspired by Parton’s father, who never had the chance to learn how to read and write. Parton wanted to find a way to help children learn and love to read at an early age.
The Imagination Library gifts children ages five and under who are registered with the effort one book every month through the mail.
The almost 30-year program is funded by Parton herself and local community partners in the United States, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.
In order to register, a community must be affiliated with the program. This past April, national literacy non-profit Read to Them, which is headquartered in downtown Richmond, was able to to partner with the Dolly Parton Foundation to become the local Imagination Library affiliate.
Read to Them has been providing community members with literacy programming and acute family engagement for 20 years. Executive Director Christa Donoghue primarily serve children from kindergarten through the 5th grade. Registering with the Imagination Library will be the first time they step out of that age group.
“It’s such a tremendous blessing to be able to reach that zero to five community and to help start that love of reading from birth on,” Donoghue said.
Donoghue says the team planned to officially launch the joint effort to Richmond in the fall, but to due to a high demand from the community they are looking to begin this summer.
She believes the program will provide a positive impact to the community and help children in their development.
“Their brains are developing so quickly in that point in time, so they are not reading the books themselves but being read to,” she said, “They’re being exposed to language, to vocabulary, to the cadence of speech.”
More than 1,000 children have already signed up for the program, which Donoghue says will bring the community closer to a special goal.
“If a given community registers at least 64% of the eligible population of the children in age 0 to 5, then Dolly Parton herself will come to the community for a celebration,” Donoghue said.
Read to Them is also working to build “home libraries” for families. Donoghue says if children are registered for the Imagination Library at birth, they will have an extensive home library once they reach the age of five.
To learn more about Parton’s effort or how to register your child for the program, click here.
