Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Flagstaff County fuels imagination of young residents
Leslie Cholowsky
Editor
Flagstaff County’s Imagination Library received some very welcome funding recently from the Battle River Railway, who donated $5,000 towards the program last week. Imagination Library coordinator Joanne McMahon says, “We needed it!”
The program provides 240 children in Flagstaff County between the ages of birth and five one free book each month. The Imagination Library Foundation program was created by Dolly Parton. Parton says she founded the program as a tribute to her father, who couldn’t read. She says, “He was the smartest
man I have ever known but I know in my heart his inability to read probably kept him from fulfilling all of his dreams. Inspiring kids to love to read became my mission. In the beginning, my hope was simply to inspire the children in my home county but here we are today with a worldwide program that gives a book a
month to well over 1 million children.
“Of course, I have not done this alone. The real heroes of our story are the thousands of local organizations who have embraced my dream and made it their own. They raise millions of dollars each year and wake up every day with a passion to make sure their kids have every opportunity to succeed.”
Flagstaff’s Imagination Library started sending out books February 2021, and has had about 220-240 children enrolled every year since it started. There have been 180 children who have graduated
from the program. For Canadian participants of the program, McMahon says a special blue-ribbon panel
chooses the books, and focusses on Canadian content and authors. McMahon says, “It’s a well curated and well thought out program.”
Every month, children receive a book in the mail, addressed to them, with all the postage picked up by the Foundation. Sandra Erickson of Sedgewick is not only an Imagination Library Flagstaff County ambassador, her son Emmett was the first child to be registered for the program. She says, “We started signing up
families by January of 2021, and the first book was mailed out by February.” She says Emmett received a
book each month right up until his fifth birthday in August 2023. She adds, “He loves going to get the mail. He is super excited when we tell him or show him the book. He wants to read it on the spot and tells everyone else at home that he’s got a new book.”
Erickson says the books are age appropriate. “As Emmett got older, they got longer. They take great care in sourcing high-quality titles and topics that interest us as Canadians. We have received books about
travelling across Canada, hockey, and fishing, as well as seasonal titles matching the weather outside. There have also been books on different professions, like an aquanaut, or Dolly Parton’s own book:
Coat of Many Colours.”
Erickson says the first book every child receives under the program is “The Little Engine that Could.”
When a child reaches his or her fifth birthday, their final book is, “Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!”
Along with the books, Erickson says the Imagination Library website has activities to go along with each book. “From colouring to crafts to mazes and other activities.”
McMahon says that Erickson’s is not the only positive feedback the program has received since it started here. “It’s all been positive; people think it is an exceptional program.” McMahon says the Flagstaff
County group pays just $3.85 for each book, or around $47 per year per child registered. “The Foundation covers all administration costs, marketing costs, the remaining book costs, and the postage.”
The program got started when McMahon, along with Kate Coutts and Caroline Boddy, heard about the program and started working towards bringing it to Flagstaff County in 2020. Generous donations from
local individuals, organizations, and corporations have funded the approximately $12,000 per year the program requires to run.
The group runs a Christmas promotion campaign that raised $3,000 the first year, $1,000 the second year, and nearly $900 this past Christmas. “We’re so grateful to Battle River Railway for their support
this year,” McMahon says. “That $5,000 removes a lot of stress from our volunteers.” She says the group has almost enough to cover the program to the end of 2024, and that they will continue to raise funds to ensure it’s fully funded.
Erickson says that not only has the local program instilled a love of reading in her son Emmett, “I find it helped us bond as a family over story time, the shared excitement about a book in the mail, adding to our library and instilling a love to read. He knows which way to open the book, how to turn pages and to
read from left to right. (Something she says we take for granted, but not everyone knows.)
“Sometimes I catch Emmett reading a book to his little sister. Or his older brother likes to read the book for his reading assignments for school. “The Imagination Library Flagstaff County is a great way to instill a love for books, reading and bond family relationships, especially to families who may not be able to afford
books.”
The local program has ambassadors in most communities in Flagstaff County. They are: Stephanie Armstrong in Hardisty, Danielle Armstrong in Lougheed, Sandra Erickson in Sedgewick, Shelby Sawatzky in Strome, Christine Cross in Daysland, Caroline Boddy in Forestburg, Joanne McMahon in Galahad, and Elizabeth Davidson in Alliance. As of January 2023, Daysland has the most participants, at 48, with Killam close behind at 45. Forestburg and Sedgewick have 30 each, and Hardisty has 26. Heisler has 17, Lougheed
16, and Alliance eight. Galahad and Strome have six and three respectively.
McMahon says that gift certificates are available, if someone wants to sponsor an individual child, and any donation can be eligible for a charitable receipt, either by donating directly through the Foundation (with instructions to support Flagstaff County) or through a partnership with the Forestburg Library.
The only proviso for the program is that the receiving child must live in Flagstaff County and be between 0 and five years-old. Erickson says, “We are thankful for the imaginative travels and things we learned by reading these wonderful books for free, thanks to amazing sponsorships and gift giving from companies and
individuals in Flagstaff County. Thank you!”
The Flagstaff County Imagination Library has a Facebook page, and the Foundation maintains a website;
imaginationlibrary.com