Past President Rosemary Moore introduced this project to our club members.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting programme devoted to inspiring a love of reading in the hearts of children everywhere.
The programme was launched in the UK in December 2007 – with a visit from Dolly Parton to London – and since then, the Imagination Library has grown and now work with over 200 affiliate partners and deliver more than 40,000 books every month to children living in communities across the UK.
SI Southport began sponsoring this programme locally in 2022 in conjunction with a local nursery. Each month, the children that are enrolled (up to the age of five) receive a high quality, age-appropriate book in the post to their home address. The books are carefully selected, and full of variety. They include traditional stories and rhymes, books by beloved authors and illustrators, non-fiction content, and newly published titles.
Unfortunately, the nursery closed down shortly into the project. As a club, we decided to continue to support the children, as their details had been supplied by the nursery directly to the Imagination Library.
Several of the children have now ‘graduated’ from the scheme as they have reached the age of five, but Rosemary has reported that we are still supplying books for a small number of children, though the project is likely to end early in 2025.
Rosemary also took responsibility for securing the funding for the project. In ‘real life’, she is a buyer and seller of antiques and bric-a-brac and regularly attends fairs and markets. She had a continuous supply of goods from members and legacies, which she sorted and sold at the fairs, with proceeds being fenced for the project.