As the President of the Rotary Club of Clarkston, I’m excited to announce that the Rotary Club of Clarkston is sponsoring a Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library for Clarkston! This initiative allows each child from ages 0 – 5 to register for a FREE book each month in the three zip codes of Clarkston: 48346 – 48347 – 48348.
Each year, the President of the Rotary Club of Clarkston along with its members decide on a “President Project”. These projects aims to give back to the community in unique ways and is something the club takes great pride in. Past projects have included assisting the Lighthouse with transportation and a storage shed among many, many others. During the early stages of COVID, while meeting virtually, the members of the Rotary Club of Clarkston came up with the idea of sponsoring the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library for the children in the local community. While I’m proud to call this my president project, it was and will continue to be an effort by every member of our club as well as our community to ensure that every child is able to enjoy this program to the fullest extent possible.
Have children ages 0 – 5 in Clarkston? Great!
Click the banner below to get started.
Zip Codes Included: 48346, 48347, 48348
Want to help support this wonderful community endeavor?
We greatly appreciate anyone wanting to donate to ensure ALL kids in our community are able to receive a FREE book each month. To continue this project for years to come, we need a total of $40,000+- a year. With enough support we hope to add additional zip codes of our neighboring communities to help enrich the lives of even more children.
Click the image below for more information regarding donations.
About Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is dedicated to inspiring a love of reading by gifting books free of charge to children from birth to age five, through funding shared by Dolly Parton and local community partners in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Republic of Ireland.
Inspired by her father’s inability to read and write Dolly started her Imagination Library in 1995 for the children within her home county. Today, her program spans five countries and gifts over 1 million free books each month to children around the world.
“When I was growing up in the hills of East Tennessee, I knew my dreams would come true. 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.”
In 1995, Dolly Parton launched an exciting new effort, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, to benefit the children of her home county in East Tennessee, USA. Dolly’s vision was to foster a love of reading among her county’s preschool children and their families by providing them with the gift of a specially selected book each month.
There is simply no limit on how far we can take this program and to what ends of the earth, but it is an absolute impossibility without your help. If your community or a community that you are aware of doesn’t yet offer this proven early childhood literacy program, then we challenge you to Get Involved! It’s actually quite easy to bring the Imagination Library to life in your community and we have an onslaught of available resources to help you Start A Program including a personal trainer which we like to call “Regional Director”! So come on, you can do it, follow this link to get a simple checklist of what you need to do to Get Onboard Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
About Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth to age five, no matter their family’s income.
After launching in 1995, the program grew quickly. First books were only distributed to children living in Sevier County, Tennessee where Dolly grew up. It became such a success that in 2000 a national replication effort was underway. By 2003, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library had mailed one million books. It would prove to be the first of many millions of books sent to children around the world.
Dolly’s home state of Tennessee pledged to pursue statewide coverage in 2004 and global expansion was on the horizon. After the United States, the program launched in Canada in 2006 followed by the United Kingdom in 2007, Australia in 2013 and the Republic of Ireland in 2019.
Program Milestones
In addition to the many awards the organization has received, several milestones have been celebrated throughout the years. With each goal achieved a new one takes its place, creating an ever-growing and expanding organizational culture, much like that of Dolly’s always-keep-dreaming mindset.
- 1995 – Through The Dollywood Foundation, Dolly Parton Founded And Launched Her Imagination Library In Sevier County, Tennessee
- 2000 – Imagination Library Began A National Replication Effort
- 2002 – Native American Communities Added
- 2004 – Imagination Library Goes Statewide In Tennessee
- 2005 – International Book Committee Formed
- 2006 – Imagination Library Opens In Canada
- 2007 – Imagination Library Expands To United Kingdom
- 2010 – Dolly Presents 25 Millionth Imagination Library Book
- 2011 – Audio And Braille Books Added
- 2013 – Dolly’s Imagination Library Expands To Australia
- 2015 – Dolly Parton License Plates Began Pre-sales In Tennessee
- 2016 – Imagination Library Begins Sending One Million Books A Month
- 2017 – Official Dolly Parton License Plate Available In Tennessee Benefiting Imagination Library
- 2018 – 100th Million Book Dedicated to the Library of Congress
- 2019 – Dolly’s Imagination Library Expands To The Republic Of Ireland
- 2020 – Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Gifts its 150 millionth Book
