Dolly Parton was there — or at least Dolly’s doppelganger, Sherrill Douglas, was.
So was Justin Minkel. He teaches at Jones Elementary in Springdale, was Arkansas Teacher of the Year, a Milken Educator and a finalist for National Teacher of the Year.
There were several hundred women — and there were purses, lots of purses. With stuff in them.
It may sound like an unusual group, but they were there for a good cause: establishing a Dolly Parton Imagination Library for kids in our area.
If you read this column regularly — and I thank you for that — you know I am a big supporter of literacy programs. My civic group, Altrusa International of Rogers, is, too.
That’s why area Altrusa clubs joined with United Way of Northwest Arkansas to raise money to establish an Imagination Library program. Basically, the children registered for the program will receive a book in the mail every month — at no charge. Children are eligible through the age of 5.
That’s why the women at Bags with Books were huddled around tables, bidding on those purses. There were some mighty fine purses involved, such as the little pink bustier-shaped number I bid on but lost. I am sure, however, the purses were less a factor than was the opportunity to send books to kids and foster a love of reading.
More than 600,000 kids are registered in Dolly’s program, according to the website, imaginationlibrary.com. She established the program in 1996 for the children in her home county in eastern Tennessee. Interest was such that by 2000, Dolly decided to make the program available to other communities. As a result, 40 million books have gone to kids in this country, Canada and the United Kingdom.
If ever there was a person who could inspire someone to get involved in literacy efforts, it is Justin Minkel. He is involved in the 1,000 Books Project, which is designed to get books into kids’ hands and is the author of “Clubhouse Clash,” a new book for kids.
He shared with us stories of his students, such as the one about encouraging kids to start a home library. Minkel said he asked one young man if he had started his library. Yes, came the answer. He had dug a hole in the backyard, placed his book in a plastic bags and buried them. Seems the youngster had issues with his siblings bothering his things, and this was his solution.
Then there was the story of the young lady who, rather suddenly, was improving her reading skills by leaps and bounds. How was she doing it, Minkel asked. She was turning off the television at night and reading aloud at the request of her mother and sister.
I really enjoyed the interactive portion of Minkel’s presentation when he asked us to think about the first book we read, then share it with others at our table. I, of course, have no idea what the first book I read was. I could share, however, a progression of books we checked out of the Harrison library on our weekly visits.
Altrusa of Rogers President Jennifer Marty Gray was able to quote the first page of her first book. Show-off.
The great part is Jennifer told us she found a copy of that book, bought it and put it away for daughter Samantha, who appears to be quite the little reader.
After we shared with our table, he asked those with smartphones to post memories to TodaysMeet.com where he had set up a page just for Bags for Books.
One attendee recalled sitting on the grocery store floor reading Davy Crocket with mom. Another read Dr. Seuss under the covers with a flashlight. I was especially impressed by the person who shared that she had gathered quarters out of the dryer to buy her first book.
“Heidi,” the “Little House on the Prairie” series, Golden Books, solving crime with Encyclopedia Brown. The happy memories in that room were palpable.
Thanks for that, Justin.
The opportunity to help kids become an Imagination Library kid and make happy memories continues. A one-time $25 donation provides a year of books to one child while a $125 donation provides five years of books for a child. Donations may be mailed to Imagination Library in care of United Way of Northwest Arkansas, 100 Parkwood St., Lowell, 72745.
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LEEANNA WALKER IS LOCAL EDITOR OF THE ROGERS MORNING NEWS AND THE SPRINGDALE MORNING NEWS. FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER AT WWW.TWITTER.COM/NWALEEANNA