Readers unite! On Saturday, March 16, the Scottsville library will be hosting an open house for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. A collaboration with James River Good Works Group and the JMRL Library, the event will offer free enrollment of kids under age 5 into the Imagination Library’s age-appropriate monthly book-by-mail program. Imagination Library sample books and program information will be on display for parents to review from 10am until 4pm. Supplemental enrollment funding for Scottsville and Esmont area kids and Open House volunteer staffing is being contributed by co-sponsors James River Good Works Group, Scottsville Lions Club, Skippers Seniors Club and SUMC Methodist Men.
Founded by global superstar Dolly Parton, the Imagination Library is the flagship program of the Dollywood Foundation. Since 1995, the Imagination Library’s monthly book-by-mail program has gifted more than 226 million books to kids under age 5. In 2021, the Imagination Library’s partnership with the non-profit Charlottesville Rotary Foundation was expanded to cover kids in the Scottsville (zipcode 24590) and Esmont (zipcode 22937) areas.
There are 457 children under age 5 in the Scottsville and Esmont areas and only 138 are currently enrolled in the Imagination Library. The March 16 Imagination Library Open House is the kickoff to an enrollment drive aiming to sign up 100 of the 319 area kids not yet in the free monthly book-by-mail program. As Dolly Parton says, “You can never get enough books into the hands of enough children.”
For more information on the Open House, go to www.facebook.com/jrgoodworks. For further details on Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library – or to sign up a child right now – go to www.imaginationlibrary.com/about-us/.
