CONWAY — When Melvin Gonzalez heard a speaker tell his Conway Area Leadership Institute class about Imagination Library and how important reading is for children, that message inspired him.
Gonzales suggested to members of the leadership class that they take on the project.
Now, 100 babies born in 2020 at Conway Regional Medical Center will get free books through the Dolly Parton Imagination Library Program in a joint partnership with the Conway Area Leadership Institute class of 2019 and the United Way of Central Arkansas.
“Education is everything,” Gonzalez said. “Cellphones are not helping. We are targeting a very important issue that is becoming more and more a problem as we grow as a society. We’re not seeing how important it is for children to read and get involved with more reading activities and [have support for] their learning.”
Gonzalez said he and his wife are adopting a teenager and plan to adopt a baby someday, too.
Ed Linck, chief operating officer for the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce, administers the leadership-institute program.
He said Gonzalez came to him in October with the idea to take on the project.
“One of the things we changed when the chamber took over the [leadership] program was we did away with the class project for the class to graduate. Through the year, [we said] if you did want to do a project, we would support you any way we can,” Linck said.
He said the leadership program includes an annual session called “The Conway You Don’t See,” which is about the nonprofit world and issues such as poverty.
“We do a poverty simulator, talk about those living under the poverty line and, even if it’s for a moment, try to experience what they go through,” he said.
Linck said that during this session, Charlotte Green, assistant professor of school and district leadership at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, talked about the Imagination Library and how the brain develops the first year, “even before kids are born.”
Green, a former Conway elementary school principal, also founded Lifelong Learners, a nonprofit organization that encourages initiatives that support Arkansas children’s success and provides free training and support to private day cares. The program is a former affiliate of Imagination Library but has since been changed to fall under the United Way of Central Arkansas.
“In that meeting that we had with my other classmates, we explored … we knew a lot of different things that the citizens needed,” Gonzalez said. “We remember that session when Ms. Charlotte came and made a presentation, and we thought that was the way to go.”
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program, launched in 2005 through the Dollywood Foundation, sends one free book a month to children from birth until they start school, no matter what the family’s income. The books are on all kinds of topics. More information is available at imaginationlibrary.com.
The books are available in English and Spanish, Gonzalez said.
After Gonzalez came up with the original idea, the class got involved, Linck said.
“The whole class agreed, ‘Yes, we need to make a difference,’” Linck said. “Somebody said, ‘Let’s do 100 babies.’ It became a team effort at that point.
“We had some smart people in the room, and we toured the United Way of Central Arkansas …. Imagination Library is under the United Way umbrella. That just brought it all home for us,” Linck said. “The United Way can take $1 and make it more than a dollar through matching funds.”
A donation button is available on the Conway Area Leadership Institute’s Facebook page.
“Just one donation of $125 will support one kid with five years of free books, $75 for three years,” it says on the post.
“We really want them to run with it,” he said of the leadership class.
Gonzalez said the details are being determined for how the program will work.
“It’s a process to make it work,” he said.
Linck said Conway Regional Medical Center “will help us get the books to the kids.”
Mary Salazar, director of women’s and infants’ services for the Conway Regional Health System, said the system is glad to be a recipient.
“We are grateful to have been chosen by the Conway Area Leadership Institute for this generous donation,” Salazar said. “Since 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has fostered a love of reading in the United States. This CALI donation will build upon these efforts to ensure that each child who receives a book experiences the excitement and magic of reading, regardless of their family’s income.”
The leadership class is raising all the money, Linck said.
“The big thing is, we need the money; that’s the first thing,” Linck said. “I think within the next year, they’ll be able to knock that out. There are a lot of talented people in that group.”
Linck said his 3 1/2-year-old daughter, Catalina, is enrolled in the Imagination Library program and loves the books she receives each month.
Salazar summed up the sentiments of everyone involved: “We look forward to witnessing how this donation will inspire a love of reading for the children of our community.”
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-5671 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.