Dolly Parton's program gets books to kids in Arkansas, around U.S.

Star honored for literacy commitment

Singer-songwriter Dolly Parton reads her book Coat of Many Colors to children Tuesday at the Library of Congress in Washington. The Library of Congress celebrated the Imagination Library’s delivery of its 100 millionth book.
Singer-songwriter Dolly Parton reads her book Coat of Many Colors to children Tuesday at the Library of Congress in Washington. The Library of Congress celebrated the Imagination Library’s delivery of its 100 millionth book.

Steel made Andrew Carnegie rich and famous; philanthropy made him a legend. Nearly a century after his death, the industrialist is still remembered and revered for building public libraries across the country.

Country music made Dolly Parton a star, but literacy ultimately may be her greatest legacy -- in Arkansas and across the country.

Thanks to Parton's Imagination Library, 100 million books have been donated to young children.

On Tuesday, the Library of Congress honored the Tennessee native and her commitment to reading.

U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, a former Fountain Lake School Board member, was among the lawmakers who stopped by to greet Parton and to thank her for her life-changing generosity.

"It was really a moving experience," the Republican from Hot Springs said.

Growing up, books were in short supply in the Parton household. Her father, Robert Lee Parton, never learned to read and write.

Parton, the singer, songwriter and actress, wanted to ensure that every child in her hometown would have a library of his own.

Her program focuses on early childhood development. Before their fifth birthdays, the children receive one book per month; up to 60 books altogether.

"She's taken the great wealth that she's amassed and put this program together," Westerman said. "Really, [it] started just for her home county in Tennessee, but others got behind it."

Launched in Sevier County near Knoxville in 1995, it spread statewide in 2004, the same year that it began operating in Arkansas.

It arrived first to three Arkansas counties in the Delta: Independence, then Prairie and Woodruff. Today, the program covers children in 63 of the state's 75 counties.

"My wife and several others are working to try to make sure it gets in every county and that it grows," Westerman said.

MaryAnne Williams, affiliate relations director for Arkansas Imagination Library, said Imagination Library provides kids with "quality books."

The first book is The Little Engine that Could, the retired fourth-grade schoolteacher said. The remainder vary.

"The families are never asked to pay anything," the Des Arc resident said. "It's theirs to keep forever."

School districts sometimes agree to pay for the books. Donors step up. Overhead is low, and logistics are easy.

"Dollywood does all the heavy lifting with the book selection and the relationship with the post office and the publisher. They only cost us $2.10 a month, where their value is closer to $12-$15 a month," Williams said. "There [is] no pick up, no delivery, no warehouse, no nothing. All of that is done out of Tennessee."

The Prairie County educator, who has met Parton twice, said the celebrity is smart, witty and down-to-earth.

"She was as charming as she could be," Williams said.

There are 20,000 Arkansas children receiving books from Imagination Library each month, Williams said.

"We're growing exponentially now," she added.

Getting children's books into Arkansas homes is vital, she said.

"Eighty percent of the brain growth happens in the [infant's] first year, and 95 percent happens in the first five years. Those neural connections that lay, basically, the foundation of all other learning, happen in that first year," she said.

SundayMonday on 03/05/2018

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