Dolly Parton Announces She’s Sending Free Books to Philly Kids Every Month!
Dolly Parton is literally a queen. She continues to do so much good!
The Dolly Parton Imagination Library has just launched in Philadelphia.
The Dolly Parton Imagination Library started in 1995 as an effort to get free books into the hands of young children in the impoverished Tennessee County where Parton was born and raised. Tennessee soon adopted the program statewide. And starting in 2000, Parton’s nonprofit opened the idea up to the world, allowing anybody, anywhere to apply to become an affiliate and start a chapter in their own community. These days, the charity mails out books to more than 1.5 million children each month.
Here’s how it works. Any family with kids under five living in the 19133 zip code can fill out an online form or sign up using a paper form they can pick up at the Lillian Marrero branch of the Free Library or at the Maria de los Santos Health Center. Within ten weeks, the child will get a free book in the mail, and those books will keep coming each month until the child turns five.
“The whole idea is that we want the books to go to a home early in a child’s life, to create a love for reading at an early age,” explains Christy Crouse of the Dollywood Foundation, the nonprofit that backs the effort. “Dolly has this turnkey model set up. We handle all of the administrative processes. We select the books. And then we align with local affiliates.”