newsminer.com

The borough’s youngest residents now have the opportunity to build their own library even before they see the inside of their first classrooms thanks to country music star Dolly Parton.

The North Star Imagination Library is the Fairbanks chapter of the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program. Every month, at no cost to the family, children in the program are mailed a hardcover book until their fifth birthday.

The Imagination Library officially kicked off with an event Saturday at the Tanana Valley Railroad Museum at Pioneer Park with special guests that included state education commissioner Larry LeDoux and David Dotson, president of the national Imagination Library program. There were also children’s books readings by Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker and School Board President Leslie Hajdukovich.

Dotson said the organization was started in 1997 in Sevier County, Parton’s hometown, then branched out in 2001. Currently the organization is mailing 475,000 books to 900 different communities in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom every month.

“We’re amazed by how quickly communities have signed on,” Dotson said.

He also said that although the organization has gone national, Imagination Library’s goal of getting books into the hands of young children and families has not changed.

“We still have one mission, one goal, and we have not taken our eyes off of it,” Dotson said.

Abbe Hensley, a special guest at the event and executive director of Best Beginnings, an organization dedicated to early childhood development, said investment in children’s early years can have long-term effects on their education futures.

“If kids have a good foundation, they are more apt to read and to learn,” Hensley said.

Also at the event was Tom Morgan, state director of Communities In Schools of Alaska. The organization is a sponsor of the Imagination Library in Fairbanks and also helped set up Imagination Libraries in Juneau and Nome.

Sue Hull, co-chair of the Imagination Library, said although the event had just officially kicked off, the program has been enrolling children during the last couple months and already has more than 1,800 children signed up prior to Saturday’s event. Hull said that number is amazing because at last count there were 7,000 children under the age of 5 in the borough. She also said she is surprised by the numbers because the national program told them to expect 20 percent of their participants to sign up in the first year.

“The community response has been very supportive, and they have been very supportive with donations too,” Hull said.

While the program is free, Hull said donations are needed to pay for the books and shipping. It costs $30 to mail 12 books a year to every child in the Imagination Library program nationally. The Dollywood Foundation covers the extra overhead costs.

Hull said donations can be made in any amount and can also be made in the name of others. Donations can be sent to the North Star Imagination Library, PO Box 84292, Fairbanks, Alaska 99708.

To register a child online, visit www.dollysimaginationlibrary.com.