Madison, WI (February 7, 2018) – As part of our efforts to make sure children are cared for and have fun as they become prepared for school, United Way of Dane County is launching Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to encourage the love of reading among local children.
In partnership with United Way, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library ensures that every child under the age of five and living in Dane County has access to free age-appropriate books every month, mailed directly to the child’s home. Thanks to the generosity of a local anonymous donor, the program is new to Dane County, and almost 2,000 kids have already subscribed.
The purpose of Imagination Library is four-fold: to encourage imagination and personal development in each child, increase emerging literacy skills, inspire a love of books and shared reading time, and foster strong bonds between parents and children by reading together. Programs like Imagination Library help support parents in their role as their child’s first teacher, by building home libraries for every child in Dane County, something we know not every family can afford to do.
How it works:
- Parents submit a short application by entering their address and child’s birthdate online at https://www.unitedwaydanecounty.org/imagination-library.
- All participating children receive a FREE age-appropriate book through the mail each month, from birth to age five.
- All children under the age of five residing in Dane County are eligible to participate.
- The first book may take about 90 days to arrive at a family’s home.
- All participants must notify United Way of Dane County for change of addresses to continue receiving books.
- Families with multiple children under the age of five should register each child separately.
“The Imagination Library is a wonderful resource for parents who understand the power of reading to their children, but who don’t necessarily have the resources or access to provide this educational foundation,” said United Way of Dane County President & CEO Renee Moe. “With this program, we want to make sure every Dane County child has the potential to succeed at school and in life.”
Special thanks to the United States Postal Service for collaborating with United Way to make this possible.
About United Way of Dane County:
United Way of Dane County fights for the education, financial stability, and health of everyone in Dane County. Through strategic partnerships and collaborative work, United Way brings the many voices of Dane County together to find common ground, develop a strategic architecture for change, and make measurable progress, while engaging organizations and individuals with the opportunity to give, advocate and volunteer to change lives in Dane County.
About Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library:
In 1995, Dolly Parton launched Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to benefit the children of her home county in East Tennessee. Dolly’s vision was to foster a love of reading among her county’s preschool children and their families by providing them with the gift of a specially selected book each month. Since the initial program launch in the United States, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has gone from just a few dozen books to over 80,000,000 books mailed to children in the United States, into Canada and across the proverbial pond into the United Kingdom! Currently over 1,600 local communities provide the Imagination Library to over 1,000,000 children each and every month.
