Dolly Parton Imaginary Library (DPIL)
In 1996, Dolly Parton launched an exciting new effort, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, to benefit the children of her home county in East Tennessee, USA. 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. By mailing high quality, age-appropriate books directly to their homes, 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 income.
Dolly’s Imagination Library became so popular that in the year 2000 she announced that she would make the program available for replication to any community that was willing to partner with her to support it locally. Since the initial program launch in the United States, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has gone from just a few dozen books to nearly 40,000,000 books mailed to children in the United States, into Canada and across the proverbial pond into the United Kingdom! Currently over 1600 local communities provide the Imagination Library to almost 700,000 children each and every month. Already statistics and independent reports have shown Dolly Parton's Imagination Library drastically improves early childhood literacy for children enrolled in the program. Further studies have shown improved scores during early literacy testing.
In 2013, the North Utica, Adirondack and Kuyahoora Valley Rotary Clubs, brought the Dolly Parton Imaginary Library to Oneida and Herkimer Counties. Limited, at first, to a few zip code areas, new born to age 5 children will receive an age appropriate book each month at no cost to the family, regardless of family income.
It is hoped within the next 5 years all zip codes within Herkimer and Oneida Counties will be included in the Dolly Parton Imaginary Library.
In 1996, Dolly Parton launched an exciting new effort, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, to benefit the children of her home county in East Tennessee, USA. 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. By mailing high quality, age-appropriate books directly to their homes, 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 income.
Dolly’s Imagination Library became so popular that in the year 2000 she announced that she would make the program available for replication to any community that was willing to partner with her to support it locally. Since the initial program launch in the United States, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has gone from just a few dozen books to nearly 40,000,000 books mailed to children in the United States, into Canada and across the proverbial pond into the United Kingdom! Currently over 1600 local communities provide the Imagination Library to almost 700,000 children each and every month. Already statistics and independent reports have shown Dolly Parton's Imagination Library drastically improves early childhood literacy for children enrolled in the program. Further studies have shown improved scores during early literacy testing.
In 2013, the North Utica, Adirondack and Kuyahoora Valley Rotary Clubs, brought the Dolly Parton Imaginary Library to Oneida and Herkimer Counties. Limited, at first, to a few zip code areas, new born to age 5 children will receive an age appropriate book each month at no cost to the family, regardless of family income.
It is hoped within the next 5 years all zip codes within Herkimer and Onieda Counties will be included in the Dolly Parton Imaginary Library.