A Lethbridge group hopes to bring a music legend’s program to the local community.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Canada is a free book gifting initiative devoted to inspiring a love of reading in young children.
In partnership with local community partners, enrolled children receive a high-quality, age-appropriate book in the mail every month, for free. The program has gifted upwards of three million books in Canada while teaming with over 400 local partners.
Partners promote the program, find and enrol children, secure funding, and pay a small community portion per child per month, with 100 per cent of community-raised funds going toward serving kids in the region. The books are mailed directly to a child’s home until their fifth birthday and children can register as early as birth.
“We’re trying to bring the program to Lethbridge,” says Co-chair Amanda Johnson. “The Dolly Parton Imagination Library needs a local partner to run the program. The local partner fundraises for paying for the books. It’s about $47 a year for each child to get a book a month.”
The local initiative has three co-chairs, who have been working together since November 2024. “So far, the response has been positive. We’re still in the early stages of the fundraising, so we’re still looking for a lot of donations,” notes Johnson.
She adds that plans are in the works to start having the books sent out in May, which is dependent on how much fundraising is done before then. However, she explains, “It’s not like you have to be registered by May or you don’t get the program. As we get more funding, we can have a wait list and add children to the program.”
“I’m a parent and I think reading and having access to books is super important,” says Johnson. “I know we have libraries and they’re amazing and great, but some people don’t have access. Some people don’t have vehicles to get to the library.”
“Some moms have a really hard time leaving the house after they’ve had a baby. This way, books get sent directly to the house, so you don’t have to leave the house. You have books for your children,” adds the co-chair.
For Johnson, sometimes accessing the library brings a sense of fear of losing books or they’ll get damaged. “That gives me a little bit of anxiety.”
“Having books that are now my children’s and I don’t have to worry about returning them, especially if your kids really love a book, you don’t want to have to return it.”
Johnson explains when books are sent out each month, they will have a label on them, “That we get to write on, so if a company were to donate to us, we could put a label on it that says, ‘Generously donated by’ and the company’s name.”
For more local information, contact lethbridgeimaginationlibrary@outlook.com or direct message the group on Instagram. More information is available at the program website.
