The Allegan County Superintendents’ Association (ACSA) presented a $100,000 check to the United Way of Ottawa and Allegan Counties to help fund Imagination Library.
The presentation took place Wednesday, Oct. 5, during the ACSA’s monthly meeting at the Allegan Area ESA Education Service Center.
Imagination Library provides books to children up to 5 years of age at no charge to the family. Each month a new, carefully selected book is mailed directly to the child’s home. The contribution from the ACSA will help sustain funding for the program.
“We are so grateful to the ACSA for their generous donation,” said United Way Allegan Area Director Amanda Telgenhof. “The Imagination Library books provided each month by United Way are a gateway for children and families to cultivate a lifelong love of reading together. They also create opportunities for caregivers and children to spend quality time together and nurture the bonds needed for healthy development.”
Allegan Area ESA Superintendent William Brown said, “The Superintendents’ Association is very excited to be able to make this contribution to early childhood literacy in Allegan County. Imagination Library is an excellent program and we are happy to support it.”
The article doesn’t state one fact about the Imagination Library that I think is vital to this program. The Imagination Library is the brainchild of Dolly Parton, and was initiated by her with her own funding. Without Dolly’s contributions this program would not exist.
I’m sure she doesn’t care that her name was left out, but I was still a librarian when the Imagination Library began, and all the Allegan County libraries participated in the program, publicizing and providing the forms for parents interested in getting these books for their newborns.
The Imagination Library is one of the greatest literacy initiatives for children ever established.
Kudos to the ACSA for their generosity to it!!