In 2010, racing across borders and gaining speed, "The Little Engine That Could," was chug chug chugging along, while the actual book itself arrived in mailboxes, much to the delight of 249,125 children under five. With over 1,300 operating programs in three countries, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library was mailing 560,000 books a month, a grand total of 7.1 million this particular year.
In July, The Junior League of Birmingham, and Dolly herself presented the 25 millionth book to Kumar Smith.
"It was beautiful,"
mother Shalisha Stewart said of her family's experience.
"She sang Kumar a song, 'Celebrate the Dreamer in You.' She wrote it for him. He was like, 'She wrote me a song?' And I told him that he was the hero of the day."
Knox County Schools in Tennessee completed the year-long study of their new kindergartners, and in Michigan, the Great Start Collaborative commissioned a study by Michigan State University on the same age group. Children enrolled in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library performed better on all assessments than children who were not enrolled. In addition, the University of Alaska Anchorage researchers, completed evaluation studies of Imagination Library demonstrating that children participating in the program are more enthusiastic about reading, read to more often, and perceived by parents to be better prepared for school. While the books are free to families, the lasting impact of the program is priceless.
A Canadian documentary called 'The Book Lady,' was released and later added to Air Canada’s in-flight movie rotation. The film was invited to the Cleveland International Film Festival and the 40th Nashville Film Festival. (more…)
After Canadian families began receiving books each month in 2006, the global expansion of Dolly’s Imagination Library continued in England in 2007. One of the goals of the popular book gifting organization is to create a love of reading in all kids all over the world, as a result, The Dollywood Foundation of the United Kingdom was launched and the Imagination Library was made available to new families in Britain.
Penguin Books UK was named the exclusive publisher for the collection, the Royal Mail was used for monthly deliveries, and a wonderful panel of experts gathered to choose the best selection of book titles.
In November, Dolly announced to a Toronto audience that the “Book Lady” was about to begin Imagination Library book deliveries in Canadian communities. For the first time, the program crossed a border with the goal of instilling a love for reading in all children worldwide.
The Dollywood Foundation of Canada secured an agreement with the Canadian-based organization, Invest in Kids, to help bring books to as many Canadian preschoolers as possible.
This year, many initiatives were successful in terms of geography and growth. For example, Michigan representatives, inspired by many of the surrounding communities, providing Imagination Library books, appropriated $500,000 for school districts to match in order to provide a “book a month” program. This $1,000,000 would be largely devoted to the program and significantly expanding the effort across the state.
The total number of books distributed climbed to over 3 million. Since the beginning, over 7 million books have been mailed to children.
Dolly Parton treated one lucky fan to a "backyard barbeque and bluegrass festival" to coincide with the launch of "Dolly's Dixie Fixin's," her new cookbook to benefit Imagination Library. Dolly's cookbook is sold exclusively through Dollywood and Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede Dinner & Show. She said,
“Since I don’t have any plans to tour this year, it would be difficult for me to perform at Dollywood to benefit the Imagination Library. I have been working on this cookbook for a while, so I thought now would be the perfect time to release it and devote all the proceeds to the Dollywood Foundation.”
"Dolly's Dixie Fixin's" features more than 125 recipes, including many from Dolly's personal collection of southern specialties like her popular banana pudding. Many of the recipes were passed down to Dolly from her late mother, Avie Lee Parton, as well as several from her mother-in-law, "Mama (Ginny) Dean." The cookbook also includes recipes from Parton's family entertainment companies, including Dollywood theme park's Noodlin' Ned's Catfish and Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede Dinner and Show's one-of-a-kind cream of vegetable soup. She even includes recipes for dishes inspired by her favorite restaurants discovered during more than 40 years of touring.
