Since becoming a sponsor of Dolly's Imagination Library, Dixie Stampede, in Branson, MO, has seen more than 2,100 children enroll in the program. Dixie Stampede brought the program to Stone and Taney Counties in Missouri in 2000. As of 2013, there were 2,151 children enrolled in the program and more than 27,000 books had been provided to children in those communities.
Imagination Library is a free book gifting program for all pre-school age children in participating communities, including newborns, whose parents register for the program. Each child receives a free, age-appropriate book each month by mail until the age of five. These high-quality books arrive addressed to the child. A child will receive a complete 60-book library if they are enrolled from birth to age five.
Dolly Parton launched her Imagination Library in 1995 in her home county in East Tennessee. She wanted to foster a love of reading among children and get them excited about books and reading. In 2000, the program expanded and became available for replication to any community willing to partner with the efforts. There are currently 36 programs in the state of Missouri.
Pirates Voyage, along with Dixie Stampede, donated to Dolly's Imagination Library.
“This is an investment in the future,”
says Larry McCoy, Director of Marketing at Pirates Voyage.
“With this donation we help build a community of strong readers, who will grow up to be strong leaders.”
Dolly shares the gift of reading with children through her book gifting program that delivers free books to kids from the day they are born until they turn five years old.
During the first week of May, thanks to the efforts of the United Way, Dolly's Imagination Library became available in Australia.
With the expansion, Australia becomes the fourth nation and third continent to join the Imagination Library. Queensland, was the first Aussie community to register children for the program.
It has been suggested in recent publications, that Dolly's Imagination Library might just be her most lasting legacy. The PBS program “NewsHour” featured an interview via “Learning Matters” and Dolly spoke at length of her early childhood literacy dream turned reality.
Imagination Library continued to expand stateside as well. In North Dakota, First Lady Betsy Dalrymple continued her support of the program. In Mississippi, the Power of the Purse fund-raising effort by the United Way of East Mississippi collected enough funds to mail books to 1,000 children a year. In Maryland, “The Delmarva Times” profiles the state's second chapter of the project, sponsored by the United Way of the Lower Eastern Shore. In Missouri, the literacy project will integrate Imagination Library into the Kansas City, North Kansas City, Independence, Shawnee Mission and Center school districts through the United Way of Greater Kansas City's Women's Leadership Council.
In 2012, an article based on Dolly’s Imagination Library initiative was included in the academic journal, Reading Psychology. The article, "The Imagination Library Program: Increasing Parental Reading Through Book Distribution" by Ridzi, Sylvia, & Singh, marks the first publication of empirical research assessing the impact of this international program in an academic, peer-reviewed journal.
A range of communities continued to join Dolly’s book gifting program in 2012: The United Ways of St. Louis, Kansas City and Springfield (the 3 largest cities in Missouri); Ft. McMurray in Alberta joined becoming the largest program in Canada; and in the United Kingdom, a plan was established for ‘looked after children’ by 26 Local Authorities in Scotland.
In 2011, Imagination Library started realizing the promise of using technology to expand its reach. One of the proudest moments for the program was the announcement of a partnership with The American Printing House for the Blind. This partnership made audio versions of many of these titles available for children with visual impairments and made sure some selected books were available in Braille.
Imagination Library also put a new emphasis on using social media. Avenues of opportunity were discovered on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ while bloggers provided further awareness. Further proof emerged that the program inspires much more reading in the home.
By December, this universal effort was operating in 1,642 communities. Over 675,000 children were participating in the program and for the year 7,999,673 books were mailed. A grand total of 38,492,164 Imagination Library books have been delivered since the beginning when it all started in one small town.
