Haylee Meagher of Bella Vista said her twin sons love to run with her to the mailbox and check the mail, hoping there is a book waiting for them.
Meagher’s 2-year-old sons were enrolled in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library a little over a year ago, she said. The national program was founded in 1996 and provides one book a month to each enrolled child between birth and age 5, said Jeff Conyers, executive director of the Dollywood Foundation, which manages the program.
The program focuses on younger children because it is an important period for learning, Conyers said.
“It’s such a critical time in a child’s life,” he said. “If it’s missed, it’s gone. You can’t get it back.”
Reading to children who can’t read helps them associate words and sounds, said Julie Petree, manager of marketing and communications for United Way of Northwest Arkansas. United Way enrolls area children in the Imagination Library program.
Reading to a child also helps build a relationship between the child and the reader, Petree said. Reading helps expand the child’s vocabulary and increase communication skills. Children who are read to also are generally ahead of their peers in reading skills.
“Every time you read to a child, it helps,” she said.
Meagher said she and her husband read to their children every night before bed. The twins will run up to her throughout the day with books in their hands and ask her to read to them. She said her 6-year-old daughter also gets excited when the twins get a book in the mail, because she is learning to read in kindergarten and likes to read to her brothers.
“They can really learn new words, new pictures and learn new things about the world,” she said.
The program was started by country music singer Dolly Parton, who grew up in rural Sevier County, Tenn. She had 11 brothers and sisters, a functionally illiterate father and no books at home, Conyers said.
“She didn’t want any children in her hometown to grow up without books,” he said.
The program originally served only Sevier County, but went national in 2000, Conyers said. The program mails more than 700,000 books each month in the U.S. To be in the program, children must be enrolled through their local affiliate, which pays for the books.
“We never ask the families to pay to be enrolled,” he said.
Northwest Arkansas’ Imagination Library began in 2011 after United Way of Northwest Arkansas received a $40,000 anonymous donation, Petree said. Officials at United Way discussed what they wanted to do with the money and decided to put it toward a literacy program.
More than 870 children in Northwest Arkansas are enrolled in the program, Petree said. United Way enrolls children who live in Madison, Washington, Benton counties, or McDonald County, Mo. The program is open to children from all income levels.
United Way allows parents to sign their children up for the program only if the child is 1 or younger, Petree said. This isn’t a national requirement, but something the local United Way does because more money is required if enrollment is to be expanded to include older children. Officials hope to expand the program within three years.
“It would be nice if a child who was 2 could sign up for it,” Petree said.
The program costs $25 a year per child and $125 for five years, Petree said. She didn’t know how much of the original donation is left, but said after the money runs out, United Way will have to rely on donations, sponsors and fundraisers to continue the program.
A fundraiser, Bags For Books, is set for March 4, Petree said. It will take place at the Holiday Inn in Springdale from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will raise money from admission fees, a silent purse auction and a live auction.
Altrusa, a nonprofit community service organization, has five local chapters that work with United Way to raise money for the program, said Jennifer Gray, president of the Rogers Altrusa chapter.
Literacy is one of the main civic projects for Altrusa of Rogers, Gray said, and the Imagination Library program fits in with the group’s mission to provide reading opportunities for children.
Altrusa members help sell tickets, find speakers, get donations for the auctions and educate the community about the program throughout the year, Gray said.
“It’s a complete team effort between us and United Way,” she said.
United Way officials and Altrusa members raised more than $14,000 last year, and hope to surpass that amount this year, Petree said.