Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is currently serving 800 children in the Sweet Home area, providing free high quality books to children ages 0 to 5.
The program, supported locally by the Sweet Home Rotary Club since 2017, received a $2,000 grant from the Sweet Home Community Foundation this year; and the club held a fundraising golf tournament Friday to help pay for the books.
Rotarian Larry Horton said he hoped to raise about $1,000 from the tournament. Participating were 36 players and eight volunteers.
“The annual budget is about $89,000 throughout the entire county,” Horton said. Throughout Linn County, the program serves around 2,800 children.
The cost of the program in Sweet Home is about $2,400.
“It’s an early literacy program for children 0 to 5 years of age,” Horton said.
About three years ago, the Rotary Club set its No. 1 priority as helping young children, Horton said at the time, and “early literacy became a driving force in our club. We know the value of reading. If kids aren’t reading by third grade, there is a high correlation who finishes high school.
“This not only promotes better reading skills, it strengthens the parent-child bond. Research is showing that these children are entering kindergarten with much higher reading skills than their peers who have not participated in the program.”
As children enter kindergarten, they take a state test that measures letter recognition, early vocabulary, recognition of uppercase and lowercase letters and letter sounds, Horton said.
Children who participate in the program tend to score 30 percent higher on those tests than children who do not.
The program helps get children on track with reading, which will help them long-term, Horton said, noting that 85 percent of students who are not reading at grade level by the third grade will drop out of high school.
“Parents are very, very pleased with it,” Horton said. “My daughter-in-law has a 2-year-involved with it. It’s pretty exciting for a kid to get something in the mail with their name on it.”
It’s making a big difference in Sweet Home, Horton said, adding that if it were not for this program, then many homes would likely not have as many books in the household.
While the program is open to families at all income levels, Horton said, “the research overall that Dolly Parton (Imagination Library) is doing is finding it’s helping lower-income families. If it comes down to food or a book, you know what they’ll choose.
“As a former educator, I’m just really excited that this program has a chance to make a difference in our community.”
United Way of Linn County operates the program countywide, Horton said, and anyone who wishes to access the program should visit unitedwayoflinncounty.org/dolly-parton-imagination-library on the web.
Books are mailed to children between the ages of 0 and 5 every month, Horton said. All of the books are high quality, and they come with questions and activities to involve both the children and their parents.
Total, children may build a library of up to 60 books, from birth until their fifth birthday, beginning with the classic “The Little Engine That Could” and ranging across a variety of titles provided by the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.