Dolly Parton to Visit WA to Promote Imagination Library Program

Dolly Parton is coming to Washington in honor of her Imagination Library Program.

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In 1995, Dolly launched the literacy program in honor of her father, who had never learned to read. Dolly's Imagination Library promotes literacy to youngsters by sending a FREE book to kids up to age 5 every month. The Imagination Library has expanded to 39 counties, with more than 65,000 children enrolled in the program. To date, more than 1.6 million books have been distributed in Washington.

August 15th will be officially declared Imagination Library of Washington Day.

Governor Jay Inslee expressed, “We welcome the great Dolly Parton to celebrate our statewide program and promote registration for our youngest learners into the Imagination Library. It is important to get high quality books to children from a young age and ensure that their families, and their unique races, ethnicities and identities are well-represented among the selection of books.”

The invite-only event will feature a fireside chat with Dolly, a small performance, and special recognition of the people responsible for the success of making Dolly's dream possible in Washington. It will be broadcasted and live-streamed on TVW (www.tvw.org) and available to view on Imagination Library of Washington and TVW social media channels beginning at 2:30 pm.

Dolly's Imagination Library of Washington was started in 2022.

"It's been an honor to support the expansion of early literacy across Washington," said State Superintendent Chris Reykdal. "By providing free books to our youngest learners, the Imagination Library is breaking down barriers to skills that will support Washington children for a lifetime. OSPI is grateful to our partners for supporting this work."

If you have children under five years of age, you can sign up for the program by visiting www.imaginationlibrarywashington.org.

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