BY PEPPER FISHER
Port Angeles – The Dolly Parton Imagination Library is going strong in Clallam County, but will need continued support from donors after Washington state legislators cut the program out of this year’s final state budget.
The Imagination Library sends one high quality, age-appropriate book to children who enroll in the program. Those books are delivered from birth to age 5, at no cost to families.
In December of 2020, United Way of Clallam County partnered with North Olympic Library Foundation and North Olympic Library System to start a local affiliate of The Dolly Parton Imagination Library. United Way of Clallam County fundraises all year to support the program. It’s also supported by the Clallam Community Foundation, which receives donations for literacy.
United Way of Clallam County CEO Christy Smith says that’s one of big reasons for the program’s solvency here, while other communities may be struggling to find enough funding.
“In Clallam County, we’re going to be able to continue the program. We’ve typically raised about $8,000 of the cost every year. But long before I started here, some people started a Literacy Fund in our foundation. And so, that money has been sitting and earning interest, and were able to use it if we don’t raise enough money. You know, our county does need more help, but we also care a lot about each other, and so we tend to give generously when it comes to making sure kids are successful.”
Of the approximately 121,000 children currently enrolled in the program in Washington, over 1,300 of those are here in our county. But there’s room for more. If your child is under 5-years old, you can enroll them in Dolly’s Imagination Library for free on the North Olympic Library System’s website at nols.org/imagination-library.
If you’d like to donate to the program, we can help with that, too.
“It’s a pretty easy program to love and to want to get involved with, because it is like a direct gift. You know that if you give $25, you’re going to help one kid get a book for a year, every single month.”
It’s easy to donate. Mail a check with a note that it’s specifically for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, or you can call the United Way directly at (360) 457-3011, or better yet, go to unitedwayclallam.org and click on the “DONATE” button. Be sure to tell them it’s for the Dolly Parton Library.