United Methodists with a heart for literacy received an early Christmas present in the expansion of their book-gifting program, which now reaches a five-county region.

JAMES DEATON
Content Editor

One free book a month for every child, from birth to age 5, in the five-county region. That’s the early Christmas gift the leaders of the Grand Traverse Region chapter of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library received last month.

The nonprofit recently created a joint program called Books from Birth with the Traverse Bay Sunrise Rotary Club and Munson Medical Center. Now, every mother who gives birth at Munson will be invited by staff to enroll their child in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library book program, which will send them monthly books at no cost to families.

To help launch this new program and reach all five counties — Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Leelanau, Benzie, and most recently, Antrim — the program also received a $113,000 grant from Impact100 Traverse City. This group of 339 local women each donated $1,000 to a grant pool and then helped select three local nonprofits as recipients.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Grand Traverse Region chapter was formed in 2015 by members of Central United Methodist Church in Traverse City. Nancy Grote introduced the idea to a Sunday school class studying literacy and the Bible. Chuck Ellinwood, a retired pastor leading the class, learned about Grote’s passion for literacy as an educator and her experience starting an Imagination Library chapter in rural North Carolina.

A few weeks later, Ellinwood invited Grote to speak to the Mission Team about starting one locally. Following the meeting, he called Grote and told her the exciting news that six people from Central were willing to help her get the Dolly Parton program going.

Everyone loves country music star Dolly Parton. A savvy businesswoman and well-known philanthropist, Parton inspires through her openhearted generosity. As a tribute to her father, who never had the opportunity to learn to read or write, Parton started a book-gifting literacy program called Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in her home county in eastern Tennessee.

The program’s mission is to inspire a love of reading from a child’s early moments and ensure that all children have access to books, regardless of family income. “Together,” says Parton, “we can inspire even more children to dream more, learn more, care more, and be more.”

Parton’s dream took off in 1995, and the Imagination Library has grown and spread across the United States and is now in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and Australia. Each month, the program mails over 2 million free books to children all around the world. To date, over 200 million books have been gifted through the program.

Local chapters like the Grand Traverse Region get families to sign up. Once children are enrolled, the Dollywood Foundation’s infrastructure provides book selection, ordering, and mailing, enabling significant cost savings for local chapters. Then, local chapters raise money through donations from businesses and individuals and through grants to purchase and ship the books at a discounted rate (currently $2.20/book).

When Grote helped launch the Imagination Library, she knew to start small but believed it had mustard-seed potential to grow, as she witnessed in North Carolina. The Central UMC group began with the small community of Interlochen in rural Grand Traverse County, then progressed zip code by zip code.

“I think God directed me because I’m a shy person and not likely to take on such a big thing,” says Grote. “So, I wasn’t thinking, we’re just going to do Interlochen. No, God said five counties. Other groups like United Way and Rotary Charities do five counties. And I never got uptight about it. I just thought that’s our goal.”

Eventually, the Grand Traverse Region chapter became an independent nonprofit separate from the church, and the program continued to grow as schools and other groups heard about its impact on the community.

And now, thanks to the new Books from Birth partnership with the local Rotary Club and the hospital, which began November 1, 2023, every child born in the five-county region can receive books through the Imagination Library. The number is growing as word spreads, but currently, over 3,000 children receive books every month thanks to this literacy program.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library was initially created for disadvantaged rural children in Tennessee but is now open to all children, regardless of their income level. Jan Engle, a former teacher who has been part of the Grand Traverse team since the beginning, feels this is part of what drew her to participate.

“As a kindergarten teacher,” explains Engle, “I can verify that economic level does not always equate with reading to children. Families get busy and involved in many things, and reading isn’t always the top priority. So, it’s not just an economic issue.”

Literacy does not begin once children go to kindergarten. It starts from day one, and having age-appropriate books for children to read during those formative years is critical for brain development. Currently, only 44% of children in the Grand Traverse region are ready for kindergarten; therefore, reading aloud is one of the most important things a parent or caregiver can do to prepare their children for school.

The personalized touch Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library gives to book delivery is how the program has set itself apart from others. Engle notes that there are other literacy programs out there, but this is the only one that delivers books directly to the child in their name in the mail every month.

Engle explains further, “So if you’re two years old, and you start to recognize that this book is coming every month, then you start to anticipate it. And a lot of kids begin to say, ‘When’s Dolly going to send me a book?’ They really believe this is being sent from Dolly directly to them. They’re vested in that book. It’s theirs, and they want to hear it.”

The Books from Birth program is brand-new and has the potential for growth, as every child born at Munson Medical Center has the opportunity to receive books through this program. Around 1,500 children from the five-county area are born each year at this regional hospital.

The leaders of the Grand Traverse Region chapter are also trying to reach even more children as they determine how to find out about home births and new residents in the area. Children can join at any point, up to age five, not just when they are born.

The Books from Birth program is a wonderful gift that keeps on giving, a generous idea that fits perfectly in this season of Christmas. It’s a program that honors the God-given agency of each child and strengthens the community by raising children to be readers for life.