Imagination Library - Rotary Gives Back

 
Marianne Temple of Northstar Lane is the Chairperson for the Rotary Club of Evergreen's Imagination Library Program. Imagination Library is an early literacy program created by the Dolly Parton Foundation. In 1995, Dolly Parton launched Dolly Parton's Imagination Library to benefit the children of her home county in East Tennessee.  Dolly's vision was to foster a love of reading among children and their families by providing them with the gift of a specially selected book each month. By mailing high quality, age-appropriate books directly to their homes, she wanted children to be excited about books and to feel the magic that books can create. Moreover, she could insure that every child would have books, regardless of their family’s income.
 
 
 
Making A Difference:
 
Dolly’s Imagination Library became so popular that in the year 2000 she announced that she would make the program available for replication to any community sponsor that was willing to partner with her to support it locally. The local Imagination Library program is sponsored and funded by the Evergreen Rotary Foundation (501c3). Children enrolled in this area early literacy program reside in various local mountain foothills communities in Jefferson County and Clear Creek County. The Rotary Club of Evergreen has established partnerships with five area preschools to provide this program to approximately 130 children per month. Since the initial program launch in the United States, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has gone from just a few dozen books to over 60,000,000 books mailed to children in the United States, Canada and across the pond to the UK. Currently over 1,600 local communities provide the Imagination Library to over 750,000 children each and every month. To learn more about the Imagination Library Program, logon to: www.imaginationlibrary.com. Administering the program in our mountain foothills area requires funding – if you would like to donate or become a sponsor of this worthy cause, please email your neighbor and Imagination Library Chairperson, Marianne Temple at: mariannetemple60@gmail.com
 
Photos:  top, Imagination Library 100 Holes of Golf Team (left to right) Linda Lovin, Marianne Temple, Dolly, Rita Carver, and Susan Hammond
bottom, Dolly with Imagination Library chair, Marianne Temple
 
Reprinted from Life on the Ridge, October 2016