United Way of Northern Arizona has launched a campaign to add 200 more children in Coconino, Navajo, and Apache counties to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library by the end of this summer.

The free book program is available to all children from birth to five years old and does not have any income eligibility requirements. The country music icon started the program in 1995 to honor her father, a sharecropper in Tennessee.

"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," she said.

The Imagination Library started in Parton's home county with the goal of providing every preschool child there with a library of books to encourage a love of reading and learning.

The initiative was so successful that she began offering the program to any community that would support it financially. It now sends out more than 2 million free books each month to children around the world, mailing them directly to families.

United Way of Northern Arizona currently provides the program to more than 1,000 children in northern Arizona and wants to expand that number dramatically this summer, thanks to funding from Read On Arizona.

The Imagination Library is not a charity or a social service; it is a gift to all preschoolers in a community and UWNA is proud to support it.

When families read to their children, they learn crucial auditory skills and how to "operate" a book. Building a home library will encourage a lifelong love of reading that will strengthen and support these children in their academic careers.

In some cases, the volumes provided through the Imagination Library are the first books these children will own.

To enroll in the program, register online at the Dolly Parton Imagination Library website’s “Find My Program" page. Enter your zip code, select United Way of Northern Arizona, and fill out the registration form. You can also contact Elaine Hebestreit at UWNA via email or by calling (928) 773.9813 to register.

Please feel free to forward this email to any family you know in Coconino, Navajo, or Apache counties who could benefit from this outstanding program.