The Dolly Parton Imagination Library is off to a great start in Ector County.
The Education Foundation is partnering with Chevron and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to provide one engaging, high-quality book a month to Ector County children from birth to age 5 at no cost to families.
Chevron donated $100,000 toward the effort.
Executive Director of Development Celeste Potter said they have funding budgeted for every child in Ector County from zero to 5 to have a book.
It’s about eight to 12 weeks from the time a child signs up to when they receive their first book.
The total population under the age of 5 is currently 14,402 children, Potter said in a recent interview.
She added that the venture has started off well with 1,747 children signed up as of Feb. 28.
“We did the press conference on Dec. 14, and the only other real push we’ve done has been on social media. … We have a full committee made up of community volunteers and we’re in the process of preparing information packets that we’ll deliver to the hospitals, to doctors’ offices, to daycares; anywhere where we feel we can reach the children in those populations,” Potter said.
Information packets also will be given to nonprofit organizations that they can display in their offices wherever it’s appropriate.
They are also hoping to coordinate an agreement with the hospitals so when a woman has a baby, information on signing up for the Imagination Library is in her discharge papers.
Right now, all the registration is online, but Potter said they are working on cards and registration forms where people can mail in their information or scan a QR code to register online. Everything will be in English and Spanish.
The first book children get from the Imagination Library is “The Little Engine That Could.”
“It’s a very high-quality book,” Potter said. The book includes a message from Dolly Parton, as well.
Potter added that the foundation is excited to see the program come to life.
“Parents have to sign their children up. They have to reside in Ector County. If they move out of Ector County to another community, there is a thing in there where they go to update their address. If they’re moving to another community that has this program, they’ll be transferred into it. We’ve already even got a few transfers ourselves of people who’ve moved to Odessa and when they put in their new address, it shipped on to us,” Potter said.
“Anytime any kid comes here and they sign up, they get it until their fifth birthday,” she added.
On their birthday each year, Dolly Parton also sends a happy birthday video message that the parent can show their child if they choose to.
“It’s meant to be very engaging. There’s a Spanish option available, so if parents needed Spanish choices when they register, they can click Spanish and they have bilingual books that they send out. It’s for everybody. But the more kids that get books in their hand before they ever get here in pre K or kindergarten, the better off we’ll all be so they can get some exposure to more words. That’s what it’s all about,” Potter said.
She added that Andrews ISD is interested in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, so she’s hoping it will expand into surrounding communities like Midland and Monahans. The Education Foundation can’t reach beyond Ector County.
“But if we could all be doing this as a regional effort just think of the impact that could have on us in five years. It could be huge. You just have to have an organization in those communities who will take take responsibility for it. The funding is probably the hardest part. But it’s only on average $2.20 per book, per child. That includes the postage. For Ector County, it’s a little bit more because we’re a pretty large county. But for some of these smaller areas, it should not be as difficult to find the funding, so I’m hoping that I can meet with enough individuals in those communities to get some interest so we can get this started. We were very fortunate Chevron is the one who stepped up and really helped us make this happen. They gave us a huge contribution and so I’m hoping that we can just spread the word and find partners for the surrounding communities,” Potter said.
In a literacy connected activity, there will be a Bookworms Literacy Festival from 10 a.m. to noon April 27 at Lawndale Park.
“There will be information out at that site about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, our Bookworms literacy program,” Potter said. “Other organizations and businesses have been invited to, at no cost to them, set up booths to provide books to children and have games and a celebration of literacy.”
“We have a vendor who’s going to be coming out just to provide hot dogs for free to families, so it’s (going to) to be a lot of fun and we are working on getting some fun mascots that can be there,” such as Clifford the Big Red Dog and Curious George, and fingers crossed, Scooter the Bookworm will make his first appearance as well.
“We had a very generous donor reach out to us and just kind of touched base about all things literacy and we started talking about how cool it would be to have a mascot. I told her yeah, but they’re kind of expensive and she put a check in the mail, so we have our mascot coming,” Potter said.
High school students can earn Texas Scholar hours by being the mascot.
“We’re signing up vendors right now. I think I have about 12 vendors currently signed up. We’re doing another big push for that. We’ve been really pleased with their response so far. There’s like a nice walking trail around that park. We’re going to have a water station and ECISD Health Services is going to man the water station and pass out information on the importance of hydration. We’re going to have someone there doing hot dogs and then along that walking trail people were able to set up with booths for enhanced activities for their children to do or to take home to do that’s all literacy focused,” Potter said.
First 5 will also be participating and their Roll & Read event is April 6.
Its website says First 5 Permian Basin focuses on improving early childhood, community health, and education outcomes in Midland and Ector counties. First 5 aims to improve health and education outcomes within the community through the implementation of three, free evidence-based home visiting programs: Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP), and Parents as Teachers (PAT). Each free program provides families with a personal educator, access to high-quality curriculum and lessons, parent and child screenings/assessments, and a diverse resource network to help all children in the community reach their fullest potential.
“We’ll be participating in their event as well. At their event, we’ll have Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library information and Bookworms,” Potter said.
Also coming up April 23 is Nashville Songwriters under the West Texas Stars at the Ector Theatre.
The event offers a sneak peek into the songwriting process and includes performances.
