Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is poised to bring the gift of reading to all children in Ector County.
The announcement was made — with a cutout of Parton — by the Education Foundation of Odessa in the first-floor board room of the Ector County ISD administration building in front of a full house. The foundation is partnering with Chevron and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which will 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.
“It’s going to set the tone and be a real game-changer for education in the community. Allowing children access to high-quality books and encouraging their parents to read as early as birth is going to set our kids up for so much more success when they start kindergarten,” Executive Director of Development Celeste Potter said.
Created in 1995, the Dollywood Foundation launched Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to inspire a love of reading and learning and children, Potter said.
“Dolly wanted to share her life and legacy as an inspiration to all children to dream more, learn more, care more and be more,” Potter said. “The Education Foundation has been a supporter of literacy efforts in Ector County ISD for many years with great success, funding the Bookworms Literacy Program, which provides new books to students in grades pre K through second, impacting more than 6,000 students during the school year and has placed 38 Bookworm vending machines across the district.”
Kindergarten readiness is an ECISD indicator of success.
“In the fall of 2023, 54% of students achieved the readiness indicator. Imagine the growth that this new partnership will bring that’s putting books in the hands of Ector County children before they ever enroll in kindergarten. ECISD is a literacy snapshot. Kindergarten through third grade growth has been improving over the last three years. And we are excited about the continued collaboration with the district and community partners that will only enhance the improvement of reading foundations and comprehension for our students,” Potter said.
Ector County children must be enrolled by a parent or guardian into Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Potter said they do not have to be a student, or planning to be a student, in ECISD and it will go on indefinitely. The Bookworms program will continue as well.
The Dolly Parton Imagination Library is active right now for Ector County.
“They just have to reside in Ector County. This may be done online by visiting imaginationlibrary.com and selecting the ‘check availability’ button at the top right of the screen. There will be options to enroll by mail-in forms and on the ECISD website in the coming weeks. Information will be available in English and in Spanish. The Education Foundation will be reaching out to local businesses, medical professionals and nonprofit organizations to assist in helping us spread the word across Ector County about this opportunity for our children to sign up for this incredible program. Opportunities to give the gift of reading through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and the Bookworms Literacy Program and ECISD are only possible through the support of our community,” Potter said.
She noted that it takes about six weeks from the time they sign up for books to arrive at their door.
Potter expressed gratitude to Chevron, which has been a longtime supporter of education in Ector County and made the initial gift to get this partnership active here.
“Anyone interested in getting involved by volunteering their time, or making a monetary donation to support our ongoing literacy efforts, may contact me directly in the ECISD Development Office at 432-456-7059,” Potter said.
The Little Engine that Could was held up as an example of a book kids will receive from the Imagination Library. It includes a message from Parton for parents.
“This has been a dream of mine for a very long time. Before the Education Foundation started the Bookworms Literacy Program, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library was something that we were aspiring to. We just didn’t have the funding at that time, so I’ve just been working toward it slowly. Then in March 2023, I was able to attend a literacy conference in Carlsbad, N.M., where they have this program. It just kind of reignited the fire in me and I started working with ECISD and … our friends at Chevron really stepped up to the plate to help us make it happen,” Potter said.
She added that they have been actively fundraising to grow their revenue to support the program monetarily. The books cost $2.80 per child and that includes the shipping. Chevron has planted the seed money and the Education Foundation has contributed some of its own dollars to the program.
Superintendent Scott Muri noted that the books will be delivered to the child’s home every month in the mail.
“Think about that again, every single month, that’s 12 months a year from birth all the way to 5, that’s a lot of books that really builds a library for the families of every single child that is born in our community, or that kind of navigates in and out of this community, so that’s pretty significant. I wanted to emphasize the magnitude of this gift. When you begin to calculate how many books will be traveling from Dolly Parton to Ector County ISD and Ector County as a community, that’s a lot of books. So thank you to Chevron first for investing in our community, not just this time, but for years. … It really takes an initial investment to make things like this happen. Thank you to the Foundation that was the creator of the idea. … And then most importantly, today, thank you to Dolly Parton, who had a vision for this many, many years ago. If you know her story and the kind of person that she is, literacy is critical to her. She even talks about her parents reading to her as she grew up,” Muri said.
He added that Parton is a book lover and talks about that today.
“This will create change in our organization,” Muri said.
There is a lot of research that shows when parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles read to children from birth to 5, it has a profound impact on their success in school.
“We know that this investment is going to forever change the type of children that we receive, first of all from our community, but it will give them a leg up. We’ve seen organizationally our investments in pre K starting at the age of 3 and 4 and what effect that has on our own children. Right now, our kindergarten readiness has increased by over 20 points in the last three years just because of pre K; just because kids have experiences with literacy and mathematics in the early years. We see the effect on that in our own organization,” Muri said.
Recently, the district was looking at state and ECISD kindergarten readiness and currently ECISD is ahead.
“This really starts that investment at the age of zero. Just imagine all of our children having this investment from birth up to the age of three as they enter pre K what a more profound effect that will happen. So again, thank you to Chevron, to the Education Foundation and to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library for making this happen for our children. It will truly affect our community for generations, not just a few years, but for generations. Lastly, it’s really understanding the impact, again, a book every month, mailed to the home of every single child birth to 5 in Ector County. That’s enormous,” Muri said.
Potter noted that ECISD is the first district to bring Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to West Texas.
Associate Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Lilia Nanez said this is a tremendous boost for children and families in ECISD and Ector County.
“We’ve been working on our kindergarten readiness for at least three years now and being able to give this boost for our families not only will it help with literacy, but it’s going to help families bond together because that’s so important. Kids feeling safe, moms and dads, grandmas, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters bonding around a book, that is priceless. Celeste Potter and our Education Foundation is absolutely amazing and this donation from Chevron, and of course, Dolly Parton and her Imagination Library, what a gift for our families in Ector County,” Nanez said.
She added that this should help increase kindergarten readiness even more because children will be getting books even before they set foot in an ECISD classroom at age 3.
“They’re already going to understand the concepts of print, the joy of reading a story together. That just gives them such a heads up and a boost in literacy, so it’s such an exciting piece, a piece that we wanted to do for so long,” Nanez said.
Valerie Acosta, public and government affairs advisor at Chevron, said they are grateful that the Education Foundation and ECISD approached the company about this opportunity.
“This could not have been a better end-of-year opportunity gift to our community and we’re so proud to be a part of this,” Acosta said.
Literacy has become a hot topic in the region, but it has always been important, she added.
“I’m just happy that it’s finally getting the attention that it needs and this opportunity for our young, young children to be read to, hopefully, every night is going to make a huge impact,” Acosta said.
