RICHMOND, VA – We at Read to Them are proud to share that we will be serving as the City of Richmond affiliate for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library! This means that every month, Imagination Library will provide a high quality, age-appropriate, personalized book for each registered child aged birth to five in the City of Richmond, at zero cost to the family. Read to Them will handle the logistics, including registering children and covering the cost of books and postage.
The only thing families have to do is be ready to share a book together.
Read to Them has spent more than two decades serving as a national non-profit dedicated to building connections between home and school, providing students and their families the necessary tools, resources, and guidance to create a culture of literacy in their community. Our reach extends across all 50 states, as well as 6 Canadian Provinces and 4 overseas US Army bases.
Since launching in 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has become the preeminent early childhood book gifting program in the world. The flagship program of The Dollywood Foundation has gifted well over 209 million free books in Australia, Canada, The Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Imagination Library mails more than 2.4 million books each month to registered children from birth to age five. Dolly envisioned creating a lifelong love of reading, inspiring children to dream without limitations. The program’s impact has been widely researched, and results suggest positive increases in key early childhood literacy metrics.
Read to Them’s Executive Director, Christa Donohue says, “The irreplaceable gift of reading aloud to your child has always been at the core of our programs. We believe the combination of Read to Them and the Imagination Library’s missions have the power to enhance the lives of the children and families in our hometown. We are thrilled by the opportunity to continue promoting family literacy and a love of reading across the City of Richmond.”
Over 500 children under five years old have already been registered in the City of Richmond. Children must be registered by a parent or guardian in order to receive the books. Please note that due to the books being personalized for the registered child, it can take eight to ten weeks before books are delivered.
If you are a resident of the City of Richmond, with a child aged 0-5, you can sign up for the Imagination Library here.
–
For more information, please visit the Imagination Library RVA website.
For further information about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library – including finding a local affiliate in your area– please visit DPIL’s nationwide website.
4 thoughts on “Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has Arrived in the City of Richmond!”
I would love to donate my books to be read by children. Also I would love for my child to be registered in the program
Hello! I will pass your information along to our Imagination Library RVA project manager. If you’d like to register your child to receive free books, click here to read the eligibility requirements, then click “Sign Up Now”. Books typically arrive in 6-8 weeks. Happy reading!
How can we notify parents and help with the sign up process for those children in our community that need books the most?
Hello! We would love for any help in spreading the word to local Richmond, Virginia parents and caregivers. Please direct them to the Imagination Library RVA website: imaginationlibraryrva.org.
Volunteer opportunities are outlined on the Get Involved page of the ILRVA website. Our Imagination Library RVA project manager, Kimberly, can give more information about specific needs as well. You can find her information here.