Dolly Parton has helped Door County kids get free books for five years. Here's how the program is doing.
DOOR COUNTY - One might not think there's much relation between an iconic country music superstar and young children receiving and reading free books for keeps in a small county more than 850 miles away.
But Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has helped make a significant impact on not just childhood literacy but also parent-child time in the five years the program has been available in Door County, its local leader said. And he has the numbers to back that up.
Get free children's books from Dolly's foundation
Parton, who became a multiple award-winning country music hall of famer in her more than 50 years of recording, touring and songwriting, started her Imagination Library in 1995 as a tribute to her father, who never learned to read or write. It's the flagship program of her philanthropic Dollywood Foundation and is meant to help children develop an early love of reading and learning.
Imagination Library was launched in Parton's native Sevier County, on the northern side of the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. By 2000 it began to offer local programs through local partners elsewhere in the U.S., and four years later Tennessee became the first of what is now 18 states to offer a statewide program. It also now operates internationally, with programs in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland.
The program mails a free book every month to children ages birth through 5 who are registered for the program. Selections by a committee with expertise in childhood learning are geared toward each child's age, with age-appropriate lessons or development opportunities in each, and parents or caregivers receive a guide to help them and their children explore the books together. Bilingual and braille books are available.
To date, the Dollywood Foundation claims it's distributed more than 190 million books worldwide, with one in 10 children ages 5 or younger across the U.S. having received them.
Imagination Library is popular, and free, in Door County
Door County Partnership for Children and Families, a United Way of Door County program, launched a local Dolly Parton's Imagination Library effort in January of 2019. About 100 children across the Peninsula signed up initially, but a 2019 Advocate story said more than 650 had registered by the end of that first year.
"Since then, it's gone off the charts," said Chad Welch, community impact coordinator for health with Door County Partnership for Children and Families.
A news release from the United Way said 784 kids in Door County currently receive a book monthly from the program, while 702 other children are "graduates," meaning they were signed up but now are older than 5. Welch told the Advocate those numbers indicate the program is reaching about 95% of those ages birth to 5 within the county, which he noted is one of the higher percentages for any of the local or state efforts in the system.
Any kid to age 5 can sign up
There are no eligibility requirements, income or otherwise, except for having a Door County address. And there is no charge to sign up for the Door County effort. While the books always are free, several other local programs have a fee, put a cap on the number of families that can receive books, or both.
Welch said it costs about $20,000 a year to run the effort, but support from organizations like Door County Medical Center, Door County Library, Write On, Door County, Lakeshore CAP and the county's Health and Human Services Department, as well as from businesses and private donations, allow the program to be offered for free with no caps.
"We're very blessed in Door County to have donors and organizations that pay for the program," Welch said, "so we don't have to charge or cap the number of families. … That level of cooperation isn't something you see that often. Door County is pretty special that way. They're funding something that's really meaningful for the kids."
Quality time together for children, caregivers
While the program doesn't have income eligibility requirements, Welch noted it has helped many families in need obtain books for their youngsters. He said that over these first five years locally, 231 families that could not meet their basic needs without help from a subsidy were able to get books for their children they otherwise probably wouldn't been able to get.
"That's the beautiful thing about this program," Welch said. "It eases these socio-economic gaps, gets books into these kids' hands."
Which Welch said is the main point of the program, getting books to kids to develop an early love of reading. Not only that, but also encouraging parents or caregivers to spend more quality time with their kids by having the adults read to them, talk about the books and the pictures inside and provide time for bonding and enjoying each others' company.
"The intent is, after five years they'll have 60 books," Welch said. "The hope is to improve their literacy, so by the time they get to school, they'll have spent time with books. Also, you have the kids and parents spending time together reading and talking about the books. So it's a win-win all the way around."
Surveys show program's reach in its first five years
Caregivers of registered children in the program can take a survey to offer a view of their family's reading habits before and after they participated in Imagination Library. The Door County Partnership said data from 442 surveys "suggests that the Imagination Library is an effective way in promoting early childhood literacy, in reading, discussing pictures in books and talking about the books in general. Quality time between parents and children also increased because of time spent around the books."
Specifically, survey respondents said:
The number of children’s books in their homes climbed to at least 120 in each, and the number of books increased in every home.
Parents who read daily with their children increased from from 26% to 53%, more than double, and those who read with their children four to six times a week increased from 27% to 36%.
The number of families who talked about a book daily went from 70 to 173.
The number of families who discussed pictures in a book daily increased from 108 to 150, and the number who discussed pictures almost daily increased from 108 to 179.
Those numbers tell Welch the program is doing what it's meant to do.
"I'm so ecstatic it worked out the way we wanted it to work out," he said.
What's next
In the immediate future, Welch said he hopes to work with the Peninsula's school districts to learn what they're seeing when they assess the literacy skills of incoming 4K and kindergarten students and whether those skills have improved in the past five years, i.e. since Imagination Library started in the county. That would help confirm the effectiveness of the program in improving early childhood literacy, which is what it strives to do.
Overall, Welch said his biggest goal is to make sure Imagination Library remains free and available to any family with children ages birth to 5 in Door County.
"My goal is to keep the program free and never have to cap the families," Welch said. "That's most important to me."
Signing up for Imagination Library
To register for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in Door County, parents or caregivers can get a form to fill at the United Way office, 57 N. Third Ave., Sturgeon Bay; visit the Imagination Library page on the Door County Partnership website at doorcountyparents.com/dpil; call 920-421-3146; or email [email protected]. Several local Nicolet Bank branches also have forms on hand.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or [email protected].
MORE: A Door County schoolhouse museum docent is receiving a national award for her work
MORE: Once near extinction, cranes are featured in a symposium at a Door County sanctuary
FOR MORE DOOR COUNTY NEWS: Check out our website
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Five years in, Dolly's free kids' book program thrives in Door County
