Educators have emphasized the fact that reading with a preschool child is the single most important activity to prepare them for school.  Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library was created to guarantee access to books and to inspire parents to read to their children as much as possible.

Research shows that: 

• 46% of kindergarteners are coming to school at risk for failure.
• Children whose parents read to them become more proficient readers and do better in school.
• The size of a child’s vocabulary is a strong predictor of reading.  Children read to one hour per day come to school with a 10,000 – 14,000 word vocabulary. 
• Children read to only 30 hours during their first five years come to school with a vocabulary of fewer than 4,000 words.
• For the poorest children, the biggest obstacle to literacy may be the scarcity of books and appropriate reading material.

The United Way of McLeod County is sponsoring Imagination Library in this area so that every child born in 2009 and going forward will receive an age and developmentally appropriate book each month at home.  The books are free and every child is included as long as they live within our service area. 

If you would like to contribute to the cost of the books or to sponsor a child, you can give specifically for this purpose to the United Way of McLeod County.  The program costs United Way $30 per child, per year.

* To participate in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library through the United Way of McLeod County sponsorship, families must have a mailing address in one of the eight county zip codes: Brownton (55312), Hutchinson (55350), Glencoe (55336), Lester Prairie (55354), Plato (55370), Silver Lake (55381), Stewart (55385), or Winsted (55395).