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 financial situation.
So she decided to give a brand new, age appropriate book each month to every child under 5 in Sevier County and mail it directly to their home. With the arrival of every child’s first book, he or she 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 a special "graduation" book.
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.
Dolly signs the very first book given away in Canada
You know what? It did!!
In November 2006, Dolly bounced on a stage in Toronto to announce that the Imagination Library will now be available to children in Canadian communities. For the first time, the program crossed an international border with the goal to make the program Canada’s own unique attempt to instill a love for reading in all of her children. Although The Dollywood Foundation of Canada will coordinate the program, an agreement was reached with the Canadian-based organization, Invest in Kids, to help bring the Imagination Library to as many Canadian preschoolers as possible.
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 of Canada takes over and manages the system to deliver the books to the home. You can find out more of the operational details on other pages in this website – so what are you waiting for? Hundreds of communities are providing books to hundreds of thousands of children. We'd love for you to be part of our Imagination Library family too!
