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| Just a few of the books our kids have received from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library this past year. |
Strewn within a pile of magazines, bills, junk mail, and cryptic statements regarding health insurance arrives a wrapped package with your child's name officially printed on the mailing label, adding some excitement and pleasure to the otherwise blah business of life's daily postal encounter. Alas, a diverse collection of many different books to enlighten your kids awaits -- many of these titles you may find in the library, or in book stores, others you may never find on public shelves. Either way, you and your kids will be glad you registered -- classics and new stories, hand-drawn and photographed storybooks of all themes ready to encourage them to read more while you guide them through the stories.
If you have children, you really should go onto Dolly Parton's Imagination Library website (http://www.imaginationlibrary.com/) and register them to receive free children's books. The United Way of the Black Hills out here in South Dakota is an affiliate partner that we encountered in a public Rapid City event who gave us some literature about the program. What a great cause -- and story. Way back in 1996, America's own sweetheart, Dolly Parton, launched this literacy program to help kids in East Tennessee. It has now grown to over 679,000 registered kids. A heartfelt success story in a way that mirrors Dolly's own story of humble beginnings.
You can also visit their online store, they're always looking for businesses to sponsor them and their website also features Dolly's latest book, "Dream More", along with T-shirts and other paraphernalia they sell to help support the cause. Please spread the word, and this link www.imaginationlibrary.com, to your friends and circles.
The more children read early on, the more prepared they will be later for life's challenges. As a country, we all benefit when kids can read, so anytime we can encourage literacy, the better off we will all be. Early reading skills lead to children being more capable to learn on their own, which empowers them to teach themselves. It's also true that strong reading skills keep teenagers out of more trouble and they perform better in school. Let's face it, kids are America's future, we need them to be smarter than we are. In light of recent events, that might not be too hard, so let's encourage them to be A LOT smarter than we collectively as a country are now. The more they can read for themselves, the more they can learn for themselves later and be more self-sufficient, skilled, dynamic, productive, marketable, innovative, and capable. That's real progress.
UPDATE: I think the database the Imagination Library uses could use some fixing up -- it seems sometimes people are receiving the same books at the same household if they have multiple children. This could be an easy system update and save a lot of money in the future. Please consider asking for some help -- I would be happy to look into this at no charge.
Side note: Dolly, if you happen to be reading this article, we'd really love for you to sing our company's jingle.... I'm being serious.
- Aaron Belchamber
