Parton’s Imagination Library available for Coosa youth
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By Christa Jennings
Senior Staff Writer
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a book program for children, is now available for youth in Coosa County.
Coosa County’s youth can participate in the program thanks to the Alexander City Rotary Club and “local champion” Russell Lands. Currently there are 722 children covered by this affiliate, with a total of 71,450 children in the state of Alabama enrolled in the program.
Russell Lands and the Alexander City Rotary Club’s coverage area includes Goodwater, Kellyton, Rockford, Weogufka, Equality, and Nixburg in Coosa County, as well as areas in Clay and Tallapoosa counties.
Parton’s Imagination Library is a book-gifting program that mails free, high-quality, age-appropriate books to children from birth to age 5, regardless of their family’s income.
Launched in 1995, books were initially only distributed to children living in Sevier County, Tennessee, where Parton grew up. However, as the program continued to prove successful, in 2000 a national replication effort was underway, and by 2003 the Imagination Library had mailed one million books.
After the United States, the program further launched in Canada in 2006, followed by the United Kingdom in 2007, Australia in 2013 and the Republic of Ireland in 2019.
Currently, the program has more than 3 million children registered and has gifted more than 251 million books to youth enrolled in the program.
With a focus on fostering a love of reading among preschool children and their families, the Imagination Library mails children a specially selected book each month. While the first book order in 1995 was for just over 1,700 books, Parton’s Imagination Library now sends more than one million books per month to children around the world.
High-quality, age-appropriate books are mailed to all registered children, addressed to them, at no cost to the child’s family regardless of income, ensuring every child has access to books.
In starting the program, Parton envisioned creating a lifelong love of reading and “inspiring children to dream more, learn more, care more, and be more.”
The Imagination Library reports that the impact of the program has been widely researched and that results suggest positive increases in key early childhood literacy metrics.
Penguin Random House is the exclusive publisher for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
Parents and guardians can enroll their child or children in the Imagination Library of Alabama and receive a free book every month until their fifth birthday.
For more information or to register a child for the program, visit imaginationlibrary.com.
