LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT/Gray News) – Country music legend Dolly Parton visited Kentucky and Missouri this week to celebrate major milestones for her Imagination Library reading program.
For nearly 30 years, Parton’s mission has been to introduce children to reading through her program that sends books to children’s homes.
On Tuesday, Parton mentioned recent moves by Kentucky and Missouri to expand their program nationwide.
“I was so excited to hear that. First of all, I love the Imagination Library; it’s very close to my heart,” Parton said in an interview with WKYT. “I love Kentucky and it’s just across the border from Tennessee. So when we heard we were going to expand nationwide, I was very happy.”
Today, Kentucky is proud to offer the program in all 120 counties, providing free books to children ages five and younger.
Kentucky’s First Lady Britainy Beshear said, according to an Associated Press report, that more than 120,000 children are currently attending school in Kentucky.
“We need to help our children not only learn to read, but develop a love of reading, and we need to give our parents the tools they need to do that,” Beshear said.
The program was a labor of love in Kentucky, and funds were donated at the state and local levels to provide children with access to the program.
Together with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, she invited Parto to a celebration at the Lyric Theater in Kentucky.
Parton also performed at an event at the Folly Theater in Kansas City, Missouri, to celebrate the nationwide expansion.
According to the Associated Press, Missouri is covering the entire cost of the program, which totaled $11 million in the last fiscal year.
Parton founded the Imagination Library in 1995, initially in a single county in her home state of Tennessee.
The program now ships over 3 million books each month and reaches more than 240 million children in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia.
The program gives children the opportunity to build their own library before they even start kindergarten, and families can enjoy reading together.
For Parton, who grew up as the fourth eldest of twelve children in a poor family in the Appalachians, this issue is a very personal one.
“Well, my dad was a great guy, but he didn’t get a chance to go to school, and he couldn’t read or write, and that always kind of bothered him,” Parton said.
Parton said the Imagination Library is her way of honoring her father, Robert Lee Parton.
“I just always wanted to do something good for my dad because he always did something great for us,” Parton said. “So I came up with the idea of starting this Imagination Library program, and starting it in our hometown, and I thought maybe it could reach a few counties over.”
Today, Parton is known to many children simply as “the book lady,” a title she bears with great honor.
“It means a lot to me. A lot of these kids don’t even know I sing, they don’t even know what else I do. I’m just the woman who puts a book in their mailbox once a month with their name on it,” Parton said.
Currently, children from 21 states participate in the program. Parton said she would like to see the Imagination Library program in every state eventually.
“I’ve said many times that even if you can’t afford college or school, if you can read you’ll learn everything you want to know,” she said. “So I feel good knowing that maybe I’ve helped one or two people.”
Click here to find your Imagination Library program.
Copyright 2024 WKYT via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
