LITERACY COUNCIL ACCEPTS NATIONAL HOME LIBRARY FOUNDATION GRANT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
EASTERN SHORE LITERACY COUNCIL
CONTACT: Rose Rulon, Executive Director, 757-789-1795 
[email protected]
April 10, 2025

LITERACY COUNCIL ACCEPTS NATIONAL HOME LIBRARY FOUNDATION GRANT

The Eastern Shore Literacy Council announces a $5,000 grant award from The National Home Library Foundation to support the local Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library book gifting initiative. This grant award will support the monthly distribution of books to registered age-eligible children. NHLF funding has supported the distribution of more than 9,800 books to local children.  More than 900 children receive a book monthly mailed directly to their home through the Imagination Library program with more than 29,000 books mailed since the Literacy Council became an Imagination Library local Program Partner. As a local Program Partner, the Eastern Shore Literacy Council promotes the program in the community, registers age-eligible children and seeks program funding support. 

The average retail cost of Imagination Library titles is about $14 per book. However, by purchasing in volume, the Imagination Library is able to acquire and mail customized books for about $2.60 per child per month.  Cost for local program partners is about $31.00 per child annually. 

The National Home Library Foundation, a small private foundation founded in 1932, supports initiatives that develop, sustain and encourage literacy programs serving children, teens or adults in need of reading and learning resources, with a goal of combating illiteracy and/or encouraging an interest in reading and the literary arts for all ages. 

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is the flagship program of The Dollywood Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit Tennessee organization. The Imagination Library is dedicated to inspiring a love of reading by gifting FREE books to children from birth to age five. The program is made possible through funding shared by Dolly Parton herself, and local Program Partners in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland. Inspired by her father’s inability to read and write, Dolly started the Imagination Library in 1995 to serve the children of her hometown in Sevier County, Tennessee. Today, her program spans five countries and gifts over 3 million free, high-quality, age-appropriate books each month to children around the world. There is never a charge to families who participate in the program and it is open to all children under the age of five in geographic areas with operating programs.

Find out more about the Dolly Parton Imagination Library or register a child at www.imaginationlibrary.com, the Eastern Shore Literacy Council at www.shoreliteracy.org  or by calling 757-789-1761. 
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