Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has led to Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio to declare August 9 honorary Dolly Parton Day ahead of the country singer’s visit to the state.
Parton will be stopping by Columbus, Ohio for a luncheon with Ohio’s First Lady Fran DeWine to celebrate and promote the Imagination Library program.
The Imagination Library is a book gifting program. The program mails free books to children under the age of five, regardless of the family’s income. According to the Imagination Library website, the program started in 1995 in Sevier County, Tennessee, Parton’s hometown.
The book gifting program became a quick success and started to expand to a national level and then reached expanded globally. After the program found success in the United States, the program launched in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. The newest addition to the Imagination Library is the Republic of Ireland, where the program launched in 2019.
The program has reached many milestones through its many years of operation. In 2011, audio and braille books were added and in 2016, the library started to send out one million books every month. In 2020, the library gifted its 150 millionth book.
As of now, there are over two million total children registered for the program and over 186 million books have been gifted to children around the world.
According to a statement from the governor’s office, the library mails over 327,000 books every month to kids in Ohio.