Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is coming to Emmet County. Tena Hanson is director of the Estherville Library, which is the local partner for the project.
“Dolly Parton’s foundation started a project several years ago where they try to provide books to children each month in the mail from birth to age five,” she says.
Communities must raise matching funds to participate in Parton’s book mailing program. Hanson says fundraising in Estherville began in 2017 with memorial contributions made in honor of a library board member.
“We’ve finally come to the point of being able to offer that to our community through the Friends of the (Estherville Public) Library and some special donations that we’ve had towards it,” she says, “so we’re excited to open up registration.”
Any child under the age of six who lives in Emmet County is now eligible for Parton’s free, book mailing program. Parents can sign up their kids online via the Estherville Public Library’s website.
“Or they can fill out a paper form here at the library and then they are put into the system and within a maximum of 10 weeks they get their first book with their name on it to keep.”
Parton’s Imagination Library mails 1.4 million books each month to registered children. The program is already available to children in several Iowa counties.
(By Ed Funston, KILR, Estherville)