Ludlow Independent Schools has joined Imagination Library, a program country singer Dolly Parton created in 1995 that sends free, high-quality books to kids from birth to age 5 every month, regardless of their family’s income.
Superintendent Michael Borchers made the announcement at the board of education’s most recent meeting.
Director of Student Services Jennifer McMillen rolled out the program last Thursday at the regular board meeting.
“I put the information up on the website today about 1 p.m., and in just a few hours I had 75 families signed up,” she said. “In 24 hours there were 100 families signed up.”
Parton started the program in her hometown of Sevier, Tennessee.
Parton said she felt the impact of creating Imagination Library when, before her dad died in late 2003, he told her he thought this library was probably the most important thing she had ever done.
“I can’t tell you how much that meant to me because I created the Imagination Library as a tribute to my daddy,” Dolly Parton said in a letter. “He was the smartest man I have ever known, but I know in my heart that his inability to read probably kept him from fulfilling all of his dreams.”
Inspiring kids to love to read became her mission.
By 2000, Imagination Library had been so successful, there was a national replication effort to expand the program all over the United States, and eventually all over the world.
McMillen said that she attended an event in Frankfort on Tuesday to kick off Imagination Library, with Governor Andy Beshear’s mother, Jane Beshear, leading the celebration, saying that Andy Beshear signed the papers on Monday, officially making the state of Kentucky an affiliate in the Imagination Library program. This means when school districts, counties, or libraries in the state start the program and begin signing children up, the cost to those other affiliates won’t be very high.
“When we sign people up, it will cost us $2.10 per child a month,” McMillen explained. “But since the state is an affiliate, we will only pay $1.05 per child monthly. There is no cost to the families.”
She outlined what the school district was responsible for by being part of the program. She said that they will pay a certain amount monthly, depending on how many children are signed up. They will continue to try to get more children signed up, because each child receives a book a month, from the time they are born until their graduation book when they are five, which is called “Kindergarten, Here I Come.”
They will have to update the records monthly as people sign up and send that information into the Imagination Library. The Library sends out the books, but if a household has a 1-year-old, a 3-year-old and a four-year-old, for example, they won’t receive their books at the same time. Sometime during the month each child will get a book designed for their age group. The books will have a return address of the school, even though the Imagination Library sends out the books.
“With books in a household, they know it will help encourage parents to sit down with their children and read to them,” McMillen said.
Currently there are programs covering portions of 76 of Kentucky’s 120 counties. The goal of the state legislators and the Kentucky Department of Education is to get all 120 counties as well as all zip codes involved with the program.
At this time, the Campbell County Library has the program for all of Campbell County, and that means children in Bellevue, Dayton, Newport, Fort Thomas and Southgate, as well as any other areas in the county, can sign up under the affiliate that is the Campbell County library.
Most of the cities in Kenton County are not yet signed up for the Imagination Library, and all of Boone County is not signed up. McMillen thinks it is a shame that so much of Northern Kentucky is not taking advantage of the program.
Over three million books have been delivered in Kentucky since 2001. Fifteen percent of the eligible children in Kentucky are receiving books.
