Ride bolsters reading outreach program

Kevin Solomon, left, and Ben Washburn near the finish line in the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council Salt County Bike Tour in Bryant to benefit the Imagination 
Library on May 14.
Kevin Solomon, left, and Ben Washburn near the finish line in the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council Salt County Bike Tour in Bryant to benefit the Imagination Library on May 14.

BRYANT — Riding a bike and reading a book typically don’t simultaneously come to mind; however, with some imagination, they can be mutually beneficial. Those two concepts were right on course last weekend at the MYAC Salt County Bike Tour.

The event was hosted by the Bryant Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council to benefit Imagination Library of Saline County. The nearly 52.6-mile noncompetitive ride attracted about 50 people and raised approximately $5,000 for the literacy-focused organization, Bryant Mayor Jill Dabbs said.

Dabbs was one of the participants of the ride, which started and ended at the Saline County Regional Airport in Bryant. The event was “so much fun,” she said, noting that public safety did a “great job” protecting riders from cars and other potential hazards.

“It was a great opportunity for people outside of Saline County to come and see our amenities and how we’re improving our roads to become more bike-friendly,” she said.

Initiated in Little Rock with the Big Dam Bridge and the Arkansas River Trail, Dabbs said, a lot of Arkansas cities are adopting more bike-friendly streets to accommodate cyclists and the growing central-Arkansas sport.

“We look forward to hosting more bike tours here to bolster this trend,” she said.

All proceeds from the event will help Imagination Library put more books into children’s hands. Events like the bike tour raise the necessary funds so the organization can provide free books, board member Pam Toler said.

Toler, who services a 10-county area for Arkansas State University childhood services, said the Saline County Imagination Library affiliate is a “very small” organization that needs fundraisers but is “very limited” in its own ability to host them. “Events like the bike tour help us tremendously,” she said.

Dolly Parton started Imagination Library in 1995 to benefit children in her home county in east Tennessee, according to the Imagination Library website imaginationlibrary.com.

“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,” the website states.

Imagination Library became so popular, according to the website, that in 2000, the program became available for replication to any community that was willing to partner with Parton to support the program locally.

The Saline County affiliate began sharing books in 2011, Toler said. The program is available to children up to 5 years old. Enrollment and participation are free. Signing up can be done at the Bob Herzfeld Memorial Library in Benton or the Mabel Boswell Memorial Library in Bryant, Toler said.

“Their name goes into our database, we send it to headquarters in Tennessee, and Dolly underwrites the expense of sending books once a month to children,” she said. “We just owe $2.08 for each book sent based on how many kids are in our database, so that’s why fundraisers like the bike tour are so important.”

The first book a child receives is The Little Engine That Could, Toler said, and the last one is always something about going off to kindergarten. Since its establishment five years ago, Poler said, the Saline County affiliate of the organization has mailed more than 30,000 books.

The positive feedback is good enough backing for the program, Toler said, but the scholarly articles completed on the program help prove its benefits.

“Studies show that children who participate in Imagination Library are 30 percent more ready for kindergarten than kids who aren’t enrolled, and Imagination Library kids also are shown to perform better in first, second and third grades.”

The benefit people might not realize is the special bonding time that is created by reading to children. No matter how busy a parent or guardian is, Toler said, everyone gets mail.

“When a busy parent is prompted with a book that comes in the mail, they’ll stop what they’re doing to read with their child,” she said. “We can’t measure that bonding time, but we know it’s happening. These books are a great reinforcement for parents to stop and hold their child and interact with them as they read together. That’s the invaluable benefit of Imagination Library.”

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