Success in NC has Dolly Parton looking to expand free book program

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is on track for expansion and the country music star has set her sights on one location in particular.

Parton said her Imagination Library started as a passion project and, with 116 million books donated so far, it’s changed countless lives.

“I started the Imagination Library, got my dad involved in it with me. He took a lot of pride in the fact that we were doing a lot of good in helping a lot of kids in a situation that he had found himself in as a child,” she said.

The organization mails free books to children from birth to kindergarten. Since it began in 1995, the Imagination Library has grown from donating books to 2,000 children per month to 1.1 million children per month.

“We are so grateful to our legislators who not only understand the importance of early literacy in getting books into the hands of children, but they knew the way to do that was through this incredible mechanism we have across the state called Smart Start,” Cindy Watkins, president and CEO of the North Carolina partnership for children, said.

Seeing the program’s success in North Carolina, Patron said she’s ready to expand to additional states.

“Now it’s all over Tennessee and now we’re here and hopefully this time next year we might have Ohio on board,” Parton said. “We’re actually hoping at some point to be all over the United States.”

As she works to expand, Parton said she’s grateful to make a difference.

“We’re very excited that we’ve given away so many books to children over the years,” she said.

North Carolina register can register their children to receive books from the Imagination Library online.