Nipawin Imagination Library chapter marking Dolly Day with push for sponsors

The campaign is being promoted as Dolly Day and is themed around “9 to 5,” a nod to Parton’s well-known song and film. Tallon said organizers are suggesting donations such as $9.25 or $92.50, though any contribution helps keep the local program going.

The Dollywood Foundation helps fund the broader program, but local chapters are responsible for raising money to cover part of the cost of the books. Tallon said it costs $46.20 per child each year to provide the monthly books.

The Nipawin chapter currently supports about 100 children in Nipawin, along with about 10 children in Carrot River and 10 in Choiceland. Tallon said the group tries to keep the program at roughly 120 children in the area and believes the local chapter has now mailed around 5,000 books since it began.

When the program was launched locally, the Nipawin Kinsmen Club sponsored 50 children for three years. Since then, funding has come from service clubs, individual sponsors and community fundraisers, including hamburger sales, pottery nights and donations from fitness groups.

The Superannuated Teachers of Saskatchewan’s Nipawin chapter sponsors 10 children each year, and the Royal Purple has also supported the effort.

For Tallon, who taught Grade 1 for 32 years, the program fits closely with her lifelong interest in early literacy.

“Exposing children to the rhythm and rhyme of books is just vital for their learning,” she said. “Literature is just so important and I love the choice of the books that come to the kids. They’re very good quality books and a real variety.”

Children enrolled in the program receive different books depending on their age. Tallon said the first book sent to every child is The Little Engine That Could, while the final book, sent before the child turns five, is Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!

A boy in Nipawin is ready for school. The final book children get from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!. (Image Credit: submitted/Nipawin and Area Early Years Family Resource Centre)

Families have told organizers the monthly delivery has become something children look forward to, especially in Nipawin where families pick up their mail at the post office.

“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback that the kids themselves are so excited about the new books and they’re creating their own libraries at home,” Tallon said. “Older kids can be reading to the younger kids, just the general exposure to literacy.”

Tallon said the program remains dependent on sponsorships and fundraising to continue serving children in the region.

“For us in Nipawin, it means doing that fundraising to keep it going because that’s the only way to sustain the program,” she said.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

by Susan McNeil

Nipawin Imagination Library chapter marking Dolly Day with push for sponsors

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