Dolly Parton’s literacy legacy lives on in Tennessee
By Danielle Smith • Tennessee News Service
As people across Tennessee mourn Dolly Parton, many are reflecting on her dedication to getting books into the hands of children.
For more than three decades, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has reached one in six children under age 5 in the U.S. and has given away more than 300 million free books nationwide.
James Pond, president and CEO of the Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation, said the group works with the Imagination Library to send a free, high-quality book each month to children in Tennessee.
“At the end of that five years, every child who participates in this program has a home library of 60 books, which begins to establish a very strong foundation for early literacy, for an appreciation of books and a love of reading,” Pond explained.
Pond pointed out the public-private partnership covers half the cost of books and mailing for every county, while helping local partners set up a nonprofit organization.
In the months before Parton’s death, both Indiana and Missouri cut a combined $10 million in public funding for the program, leaving thousands of children without access to free monthly books, Yahoo News reported. Pond stressed in Tennessee, it will continue as long as possible.
Pond noted the foundation has provided more than 61 million books to kids since 2004 and reading remains a fundamental skill for children and adults alike.
“It is a technical skill that opens up the entire world to a child,” Pond emphasized. “You cannot be good at math without literacy. You are not going to be able to manage your finances without literacy, so your academic success is determined by literacy.”
Research shows children who had fewer than 25 books in their home were 214 times less likely to graduate from high school than their peers who had much more, which Pond argued makes clear literacy is foundational to life, career, and academic success.
Parents may enroll their children in the program at GovernorsFoundation.org.
Support for this reporting was provided by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, formerly Carnegie Corporation of New York.
