A new library program is coming to Mountain View Elementary, and school patrons are invited to celebrate its upcoming launch.
Children in Stone County up to the age of five will be the beneficiaries of Dolly’s Imagination Library. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book-gifting program started by the entertainer “…that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth until they begin school, no matter their family’s income,” according to the organization’s website.
Parents and guardians can register their children at the Mountain View Elementary School’s Literacy Night on Tuesday, Oct. 15, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Mountain View Elementary multi-purpose room.
United Way of North Central Arkansas is the affiliate champion for Stone County Imagination Library as well as Imagination Library programs in Cleburne, Independence, Izard, and Sharp Counties. The program is also supported by Mountain View School District, Stone County Medical Center, Centennial Bank-Mountain View, First Security Bank-Mountain View, Bessie Boehm Moore Stone County Library, UAMS Kids First, and Rural Educational Heritage, Inc.
“We are thrilled to work together with local community partners in Stone County to put more books into the hands of children,” said Kimberly Tucker, executive director of United Way of North Central Arkansas.
“The Mountain View School District is honored to promote early childhood literacy by supporting this program, which complements our existing school programs to create a culture of reading at home,” said Mountain View Schools Superintendent Brent Howard.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is the flagship program of the Dollywood Foundation has mailed well over 100 million free books in Australia, Canada, The Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. For more information on the program, click here.
Mountain View Elementary Principal Kay Shipman said the Dolly Parton Imagination Library will fit right in with another new program the district has started this year called Save the Children.
“It is a new program we’ve started this year,” Shipman said in an interview with the White River Now family of radio stations, “and one of the aspects of it is, for (children ) birth to five, we have a teacher hired who will go out, visit the homes, working with children…And so we felt this was a great program to move into with the Imagination Library.”
For more information about both programs, listen to Shipman and Tucker visit with White River Now’s Big Daddy Randy Alan below.
Kimberly Tucker (pictured above, left), executive director of United Way of North Central Arkansas, and Kay Shipman (right), principal of Mountain View Elementary, during a recent visit to the White River Now family of radio stations. / Featured image via imaginationlibrary.com.
