THE SOCORRO ROTARY CLUB FOUNDATION
PRESENTS
DOLLY PARTON'S IMAGINATION LIBRARY
WHAT WE DO:
- Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library:
- Delivers a free, age-appropriate, high quality book each month to the homes of preschool children, from birth until their fifth birthday. If registered at birth, the child will have a personal library of 60 books by the time they enter Kindergarten. The books are addressed to the child and are delivered to the child’s home or Post Office box.
- Encourages parents to read, sing, talk and play with their children, thus giving the children the tools to enter Kindergarten ready to learn and increasing the likelihood they will experience success in school and beyond while strengthening family bonds.
- The Socorro Rotary Club and Foundation:
- Registers children for the program
- Secures funding to pay for the books and their mailing.
WHY WE DO IT:
- New Mexico ranks 49th out of the 50 states overall in child well-being according to the recent Annie E. Casey Foundation Kid’s Count Report.
- We are experiencing a lack of preschool programs, plummeting reading proficiency scores and low income levels.
- Many studies (Evans and Kelly) support the idea that the more books there are in the home, the longer a child will stay in school. Further studies (Hart and Risley) indicate that children from a literacy-rich environment enter Kindergarten with a vocabulary ten times greater than those with few books in their homes who hear fewer words.
HOW WE DO IT:
- We provide a proactive, educationally sound way to engage young children and their parents in the roots of literacy.
- We seek funding from individuals, service organizations, businesses, foundations and state and local governments.
IS IT WORKING?
- Recent parent surveys in other affiliates and research studies confirm the program is making a difference. Reading proficiency levels are on the rise and parents are spending more time reading with their child.
- A recent study found that children four to five years old who are read to three to five times a week have the same reading ability as children six months older. Reading to children six to seven days a week puts them almost a year ahead of those who are not being read to. (Kalb, & Van Ours, 2013).
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
- You can volunteer to help distribute and collect registration forms, become a data entry clerk or join the Rotary Club and participate as a club member.
You can “adopt” one or more children.- One child = $25 for one year (12 books including 2 bilingual)
- Four children = $100 for one year (48 books including 8 bilingual)
- Forty children = $1,000 for one year (480 books including 80 bilingual)
- Donations can be given to any Rotary Club member or mailed to Dan Klinglesmith, President, PO Box 179, Socorro, NM 87801. Make checks payable to The Socorro Rotary Club Foundation
Contact us at: theks@aol.com Register: using forms in download files on this page
Link to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library web page: <https://imaginationlibrary.com/>