Picture: Dennis Hall, General Manager Victory Toyota Hyundai, and Wilkes Community Partnership for Children staff Susan Cogdill, Executive Director, and Britt Billings, Program Evaluator, are excited about bringing the Dolly Parton Imagination Library to Wilkes County children.
Victory Automotive Group is more than just a business in the community – they pride themselves on being part of the community. They care about the area they serve and the people in it. They proved this recently when they invested over $8,000 to help the Wilkes Community Partnership for Children start up the Dolly Parton Imagination Library in Wilkes County.
In 1996, Dolly Parton launched an exciting new effort, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, to benefit the children of her home county in East Tennessee, USA. Dolly's vision was to foster a love of reading among her county’s preschool children and their families by providing them with the gift of a specially selected book each month. By mailing high quality, age-appropriate books directly to their homes, she wanted children to be excited about books and to feel the magic that books can create. Moreover, she could insure that every child would have books, regardless of their family’s income. Dolly’s Imagination Library became so popular that in the year 2000 she announced that she would make the program available for replication to any community that was willing to partner with her to support it locally. Already statistics and independent reports have shown Dolly Parton's Imagination Library drastically improves early childhood literacy for children enrolled in the program. Further studies have shown improved scores during early literacy testing.
Wilkes Community Partnership for Children is continuously seeking funding to ensure every child birth to age 5 to have the opportunity to participate in this wonderful program and appreciates the generous donation made by the Victory Automotive Group. It cost approximately $30 a year to fund one child per year to participate in the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Wilkes Community Partnership for children will hold a Dolly Parton Imagination Library kick-off event in January and will begin enrolling children. If you would like to learn more or would like to donate to the program, contact Wilkes Community Partnership for Children at 838-0977.
Wilkes Community Partnership for Children, a local Smart Start agency, is a United Way partner agency.
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