More than 1,000 children in the Escanaba area receive a free book every month through Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. United Way of Delta County has run the program locally since 2017.
The program's reach in Delta County is drawing fresh attention after Parton died Tuesday, Aug. 25, in Nashville at age 80. Her publicist said the cause was a brief battle with cancer, NPR reported. Parton's family asked that donations be made to the Imagination Library in lieu of flowers, according to Variety.
"Children don't always have easy access to books. This is totally free," Julie Mallard, executive director of United Way of Delta County, told WZMQ on Friday, Aug. 28. "We have people that will say, 'My kids watch the mailbox because they get so excited about it.'"
Enrolled children receive one book each month from birth until they turn 5. That adds up to as many as 60 books for a home library before kindergarten. Some titles arrive in both English and Spanish, and others include reading tips for parents.
Every child starts with the same first book, "The Little Engine That Could," and receives the same last one, "Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!"
Why Parton started it
Parton founded the Imagination Library in 1995 to honor her father, Robert Lee Parton, who could not read or write.
"Dolly started this kind of to honor her father," Mallard said. "He did not know how to read or write, so this was sort of her way of paying tribute to her dad and providing literacy to kids."
The program is free for families. Local nonprofit partners like United Way of Delta County handle enrollment and pay an average of $2.60 per child per month to cover books and postage, according to The New York Times.
The Imagination Library operates in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and four other countries. More than 330 million books have been mailed to children globally since 1995, according to Yahoo Entertainment. Earlier in the summer, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce donated $2 million to the program.
How to enroll
"We're all going to miss her, but her legacy is going to live on for generations because of this program," Mallard told WZMQ.
Escanaba-area families can enroll children at no cost through United Way of Delta County at uwdelta.org/dolly-partons-imagination-library or check availability at imaginationlibrary.com.
