By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Sue Clanton, of the Wood County United Way, was hoping to make a splash with the launch of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
The program, founded by the country music legend in honor of her father, provides free books to kids from birth to 5 years old at no cost to families.
Registration for the program in Wood County started April 2.
Dolly’s Library is a pet project of the governor’s office, and when Clanton went down to Findlay a few weeks go for a celebration of the program, called the Dolly Parton and Ohio Governor’s Imagination Library in Ohio, Fran DeWine was the scheduled speaker.
But that coincided with the announcement of strict social distancing measures and business closures. The state’s first lady missed the date, and any hopes for a Wood County event were quashed. So about 30 people marked the beginning of the program with a Zoom conference.
Still despite that low-key opening, Clanton said, 246 children were registered in the first 24 hours. And nine others, who were enrolled in the program through other jurisdictions, transferred.
As of Monday morning, 521 children have registered. Parents can sign up online here: https://www.unitedwaytoledo.org/get-help/imaginationlibrary/
The cost to launch the program is about $60,000. That’s enough to serve 35 percent of children in the targeted age group. Half was provided by the county’s public libraries. The governor’s office matched that amount.
This was enough to get the program started. The cost to serve the approximately 7,000 children 5 and under in the county would be $172,000. In February, when the Wood County District Public Library trustees approved its share of the funding, just shy of $15,000, Library Director Michael Penrod said he was told to expect the program would max out at reaching about 60 percent of the eligible kids.
The United Way is the designated local agent and will handle registering students and paying local costs. Parton’s foundation pays for the books, which are specially printed editions, and the cost of mailing. The books are selected by a panel of children’s literary are experts, and include new books as well as classics such as “The Snowy Day” by Ezra Jack Keats and “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle.
Maria Simon, the children’s librarian for the Wood County Public Library, has reviewed the selection sand gave them a thumbs up.
The Wood County launch coincided with the start of a special weekly feature on Facebook Bedtime Stories with Dolly Parton.
It will take about 60 days for the books to start arriving in Wood County homes, Clanton said.
Because the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Way will miss out on a major opportunity to sign up more kids because the annual Literacy in the Park at Bowling Green State University has been canceled.
