At this week's meeting, we had the opportunity to learn about The United Way is working as a Local Champion partner of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program
 
At this week's meeting, we had the opportunity to learn a little more about an important local program from Stacia Erdos, Vice President of Strategic Planning at the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. 
The United Way is working as a Local Champion partner of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program, Erdos is encouraged us to help put a free age-appropriate book in every child’s hand from birth to age five.  All families in Mahoning County with children from birth to age five are eligible to enroll.  While the Imagination Library negotiates wholesale pricing for the books, Local Champions are responsible for securing funds to cover that cost.
"By getting on board with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, the children will be able to lay the tracks for a promising future," Erdos said. "Our gift to children is free books, and with adults help, the gift becomes the power to read."
Rotary President Samantha Turner commented that her son, Anthony, participates in the program and truly enjoys it. Rotarian Elayne Bozik, a longtime advocate for the Club's Little Free Library Program, sparked a conversation about how we might support this effort. 
 
In 1995, 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. The new program gave each child a specially selected book each month. By mailing high quality, age-appropriate books directly to their homes, Dolly wanted children to be excited about books and to feel the magic that books can create. Moreover, she could ensure that every child would have books, regardless of their family’s income.

Since its launch, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has set and surpassed many goals and milestones. National replication, which started in 2000, allowed more and more communities to adopt the program. State-wide coverage was established in Tennessee in 2004. Furthermore, international growth provided expansion in Canada (2006), United Kingdom (2007), and Australia (2014). 

The first book order in 1995 totaled just over 1,700. Today, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library sends more than one million books per month to children around the world inspiring them to Dream More, 

Learn more about the local program at https://www.ymvunitedway.org/program/imagination-library