10,000th Dolly Parton Imagination Library Book To Be Delivered To A Middletown Child

APRIL 7, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: T. DUANE GORDON 513-424-7369 (Cell: 513-593-4860)

MIDDLETOWN – The Middletown Community Foundation and its partners in the local chapter of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library will this month celebrate delivery of the project’s 10,000th book to a Middletown child.

 “We’re so thrilled with the response that the program has had in the community thus far as parents learn that reading to children from birth is the single most important activity to prepare their little ones for school,” said Middletown Community Foundation Executive Director T. Duane Gordon. He added that initial projections had them passing the 10,000-book milestone in late 2010, something they have done several months earlier than originally expected.

The first books were distributed to Middletown children in January 2009, and by the end of this month more than 10,400 books will have been mailed to homes here.

 “That means more than $100,000 worth of books have been sent to our community’s children, but thanks to our partnership with Dolly Parton’s program, it’s only cost our local sponsors about $25,000,” noted Gordon.

 To celebrate, the Middletown Community Foundation and Middletown Public Library will host an event at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 17, in the Library’s lobby where the public is invited to see Middletown Postmaster Andrew Glancy “deliver” the 10,000th book to a local newborn. The child will also receive special gifts from the Middletown Community Foundation, the Middletown Public Library and the Dollywood Foundation to mark the occasion, Gordon said.

The ceremony will be followed by the Library’s monthly children’s crafts and story time event, which for April focuses on Library Mouse, who is expected to make a special appearance himself to celebrate the Imagination Library achievement.

In addition, Gordon said the Community Foundation plans to expand the Imagination Library service area, which presently encompasses only homes located within the Middletown City School District, where any child under the age of 5 may register to receive the free books.

Women Living United, a women’s initiative of the United Way of Greater Cincinnati – Middletown Area, has adopted as its signature project expansion of the program into the Edgewood, Madison and Monroe school districts and will host its first fund-raiser toward that goal next month. Organizers hope to begin registering children in the three additional districts by year’s end.

The Imagination Brunch will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 1, in the Johnston Hall Community Room at Miami University Middletown with motivational speaker Cea Cohen Elliot delivering the keynote address. Seating is limited, so reservations are requested by April 23 at 513-705-1164. Tickets are $15 each, and several vendors will have tables offering items for sale to benefit the project.

Gordon said the Imagination Library will also play a prominent role at a “fun and informative” literacy resource fair offered to the public at Damon Park (1500 Pershing Avenue) from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Thursday, April 29, as part of the Amanda neighborhood’s Place Matters initiative.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is an innovative international early childhood literacy program active in more than 1,100 communities across the United States, Canada and Great Britain. It provides one age-appropriate, expert-selected book every month from birth to age 5 for any child in a participating community at absolutely no cost to the parents.

Inspired by her own father’s lifelong illiteracy, Parton created the program in 1995 in her hometown in Tennessee, offering it to other communities starting in late 1999. It will distribute its 25 millionth book later this year.

Her Dollywood Foundation provides the administration of the program at no cost to the communities, but local sponsors must pay the actual costs for book purchases and mailing, about $28 per child annually.

In late 2008, the Middletown Community Foundation initiated the program locally to combat low entering kindergarten literacy scores, for which the Middletown district ranked in the bottom 7 percent statewide. The Community Foundation committed $150,000 of the project’s expected $200,000 costs over the first five years in Middletown, and other major financial sponsors include the Miriam G. Knoll Charitable Foundation, Middletown Rotary Foundation, Kiwanis Club of Middletown, The Barnitz Fund of JP Morgan Chase, the Arthur Harvey Foundation and the Morgan Family Foundation Fund.

Other partners providing in-kind support have included the United Way of Greater Cincinnati – Middletown Area, Middletown Public Library, TV Middletown, Atrium Medical Center, Middletown Post Office and Middletown City School District. Several individuals have also made contributions to support the program.

To register Middletown children under the age of 5, or for more information, visit mcfoundation.org/library or call 513-424-7369.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has 16 affiliates in Ohio, 22 in Indiana and 27 in Kentucky, including nine chapters in the greater Cincinnati area: Middletown and Brown County in Ohio; Franklin, Dearborn and Ohio counties in Indiana; and in Kentucky, Grant and Gallatin counties plus the city of Silver Grove in Campbell County.

The Middletown Community Foundation works to improve the lives of those in the greater Middletown area by serving as a permanent source of funding for projects to benefit the community. Founded in 1976 as part of the Middletown United Way, the Community Foundation became an independent organization in 1986 and over the past 33 years has distributed tens of millions of dollars to charitable organizations in the area, with more than $20 million granted out in the past 10 years alone.