In light of country star Dolly Parton’s death Tuesday at the age of 80, the D.C. Public Library publicly thanked her for free books given to city residents through her Imagination Library program.
Ms. Parton started the Imagination Library program, and its initiative to mail free books monthly to children from their birth until they turn 5 years old, in 1995. The program’s partnership with the D.C. Public Library started in 2016, with nearly 4 million books mailed to over 100,000 children in the District of Columbia, the library said Tuesday.
“For more than ten years, more than a hundred thousand of the District’s youngest residents have benefitted from this extraordinary program … We are profoundly indebted to her — not only for her timeless music and cultural influence, but for her unwavering belief that every child deserves access to books and the opportunities they create. Meeting her remains one of the absolute thrills of my professional life. We will always love Dolly Parton,” D.C. Public Library Executive Director Richard Reyes-Gavilan said in a statement.
The program was supported by the D.C. Council, including Council member Charles Allen, who told the Los Angeles Times that he was inspired to bring the literacy program to the District of Columbia after visiting family in Tennessee including a niece who got free books through the Imagination Library program.
“We basically borrowed that program and then partnered with them. And now every child in D.C. from the time they’re born ’til they’re 5 years old gets a free book delivered,” Mr. Allen told the Los Angeles Times.
In addition to the U.S., the Imagination Library program is also present in Australia, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom, with over 3 million children registered and over 332 million books sent out in its 31 years of existence.
Ms. Parton donated the 100 millionth book given away by the program to the Library of Congress in 2018, according to a post from the Library of Congress on social media.
“When I was growing up in the hills of East Tennessee, I knew my dreams would come true,” Ms. Parton said in a quote displayed on the program’s website. “I know there are children in your community with their own dreams. They dream of becoming a doctor or an inventor or a minister. Who knows, maybe there is a little girl whose dream is to be a writer and singer. The seeds of these dreams are often found in books and the seeds you help plant in your community can grow across the world.”
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