Few people – other than celebrities – can unite young people with their grandparents, conservatives and liberals, country music lovers and pop ballad lovers. similar to Tennessee superstar Dolly Parton.
“He’s welcome everywhere,” Ohio first lady Fran DeWine said in an interview Monday at the Ohio Governor’s Mansion. “People understand that he has good things about him, and he’s very talented, and he’s very open, and he’s accepting of other people, and we all love him.”
There’s another reason to love Parton: She’s a champion of children’s education.
Parton launched Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in 1995 by sending free books to children in Sevier County, Tennessee, where she was born and raised. He started the program to honor his father, Robert “Lee” Parton, who was very intelligent but “felt handicapped by the fact that he couldn’t read and write,” he said.
Now, those free books are available for kids 5 and under all over the world — including every county in Ohio. Parton will join DeWine, her husband Gov. Mike DeWine and other literacy advocates Tuesday at The Ohio State University’s Ohio Union to celebrate the program’s success so far and the push for more participants.
‘It’s better to give than to receive’: Dolly Parton talks about legacy of book show
Free books for Ohio kids: How to sign up for the new Governor’s Library
About 328,000 Ohio children currently receive free books each month. The program is available to all children regardless of their family income. The first book given is “The Little Engine that Could” and the last book is “Look Out Kindergarten, Here I come.”
Parton’s Imagination Library offers these books at a fraction of their original cost – $2.10 per child, per month. In order to pay for the books, Ohio lawmakers provided $18 million to match what local organizations, such as the United Way or Easterseals, spend.
Fran DeWine led the first literacy program since Mike DeWine took over in 2019.
“It was an easy sell,” said Fran DeWine as the family dog — a springer spaniel named Dolly after Parton — sat nearby. “(Legislators) realized that this is just a great way to help our kids get ready for kindergarten.”
Why early reading matters
Reading is an important skill for success in school and later in life, research shows. To see also : Cindy Hubbell: Devil’s Lake Art Festival is coming July 30. But many children enter kindergarten without the tools to succeed, and those delays can follow children throughout their lives.
About two-thirds of Ohio fourth-graders were reading poorly in 2019 — a number that hasn’t changed much in the past decade and mirrors the national average, according to the data. of the annual KIDS COUNT released Monday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
But reading to babies and toddlers can solve some of Ohio’s literacy problems. For example, children in the reading program improved their readiness for kindergarten by 15% over a three-year period, according to a Cincinnati Children’s study published last year.
Fran DeWine learned about the importance of reading in her early childhood classes at the University of Miami. But he also saw for himself how reading and writing helped his eight children and 26 grandchildren.
It was Fran DeWine’s grandchildren who introduced her to Parton’s Library of Thought. They would tear open the bundle of wrapped books and ask their grandmother to read to them.
He said: “I saw how happy even these children were when they received a book in the mail. “And I thought, ‘This is so cool.’
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Years later, Fran DeWine enjoys reading to children across Ohio. (What he’ll be reading is “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle.) And he’s excited – if a little nervous – to invite Parton to Ohio.
Fran DeWine first met Parton at a 2016 concert she attended with Mike and their daughter Anna. The now first lady later thanked Parton for the work she has done to help children learn to read.
Little did he know that Parton would return to Ohio years later to celebrate the Ohio State Library. The governor declared Tuesday “Dolly Parton Day” in the state.
Fran DeWine didn’t comment on Parton’s list for Tuesday, but she does have a favorite. “We all love ‘I Will Always Love You.’
How to sign up for free books
You can enroll your child by going to ohioimaginationlibrary. On the same subject : The Top 25 Self-Help Books in 2022.org/enroll. The book list is available at imaginationlibrary.com/usa/book-list.
You can watch the event live at ohioimaginationlibrary.org/livestream at noon Tuesday.
Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Akron Beacon Journal, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch and 18 other news organizations across Ohio.
