Dolly Parton’s free books for kids once served Tri-Cities. It’s coming back
The expansion of a free book-by-mail program in Washington state could mean good things for child literacy rates in the Tri-Cities.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a free book gifting program that mails age-appropriate literature to children from birth to 5, regardless of a family’s income. The Tennessee-based program covers printing costs of the book while local nonprofits cover the postage.
More than 176 million books have been mailed out across the world, according to the program’s website.
Last week, the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the United Ways of the Pacific Northwest announced the program would expand statewide after a bill passed in the Legislature.
The bill was delivered to Gov. Jay Inslee’s desk on Monday for signing. If signed into law, the bill would allocate a 50% funding match through OSPI for new enrollment.
LoAnn Ayers, CEO of the United Way of Benton and Franklin Counties, said she’s excited at the prospect of bringing back the program. They’re currently in the early stages of determining who to partner with in order to roll out the program.
“COVID has had a big impact on our community and we could use it now more than ever,” she told the Herald. “This will prepare parents and caregivers in getting their students read for school and for life.”
Reading at a young age has been shown to be highly beneficial for the educational development and long-term learning success of children.
The United Way of Benton and Franklin Counties had previously operated an Imagination Library program more than a decade ago, though grant funding for the program ran out after four years.
Parents back then said they were grateful for the continuous stream of books, Ayers said. Having books delivered to the door made a “huge difference” for families that couldn’t afford to buy them or that were living in rural areas.
About 40% of students entering kindergarten in Benton and Franklin counties were deemed “unprepared,” Ayers said, prior to the onset of COVID-19. Since then, that number has likely grown as many students learned remotely during the pandemic.
Promoting reading could help lower that number.
“This isn’t the only solution — this is just one solution. But we know that as parents and caregivers and grandparents read with their children early on, that language development is in hand. This is an awesome opportunity to roll this out in our two counties,” Ayers said.
Elizabeth Barnes, executive director of The Children’s Reading Foundation of the Mid-Columbia, which encourages children and parents to read 20 minutes a day together, said the the thought of getting more books into the hands of children is “exciting.”
Her foundation was the one that had previously worked with United Way of Benton and Franklin Counties to bring the Imagination Library to Tri-City children. She said the success of reintroducing the program will depend on how much continuous funding it receives from the community.
“It’s really, really exciting to have that opportunity for books to be mailed to children’s front doors, so that they can have books in their homes,” she said.
Low-income families have on average about one age-appropriate book per child in their homes, Barnes said. When that number is at 10 books, students are much more likely to graduate from high school, pursue a post-high school education and be a contributing member of society.
Last year, the Reading Foundation distributed roughly 60,000 books to nonprofits and schools. This coming summer, they anticipate handing out 12,000 books to children in an effort to curb the “summer slide,” known as summer learning loss.
