(Arnolds Park)– People everywhere continue to remember, honor, and celebrate the life of Dolly Parton and her legacy.
One of the programs she founded is in existence locally. Amy Paas of Arnolds Park spearheaded efforts to make Dolly’s Imagination Library available in Dickinson county…
“We have had a very successful Imagination Library right here in Dickinson county. We have already served 554 little ones under age 5 and gifting them books once a month. It’s really been a success and we’ve been notified through Imagination Library that this program was not to be for Dolly’s lifetime, it was to be for our lifetimes. This program is very strong and will continue to go on.”
Paas adds the program has already proved itself locally…
“It’s such a simple thing that you know you get a gift once a month from birth to age 5 and you try to instill a love of learning at the earliest of ages. Studies have been showing from the Imagination Library, different studies have come out about how successful it’s been with early education and how it helps them so much when they head out to kindergarten how they’re a step ahead. It’s really pretty amazing.”
Paas says it’s easy to get kids signed up for the free program, and to help the Imagination Library continue to flourish…
“If you want to sign up your child that lives in Dickinson county, all you do is go on to imaginationlibrary.com and you put in your zip code and it will say that the program is running here and you can get signed up and there’s no charge to the child. On the flip side of that, of course we need donations to buy the books. We’re burning through about a thousand dollars a month right now with the amount of kids we have in the program. And so you can also do that through the website but you have to specify that it is for Imagination Library of Dickinson County to make sure that it comes to us. Another way to do it is to take a check down to the Okoboji Foundation. They’re partnered with us and they can handle it as well.”
Paas says making a donation to the Dickinson County Imagination Library is also a great way for residents looking for a way to remember Dolly Parton.
