Dolly Parton has just reached a landmark milestone with her Imagination Library!
Since its launch in 1995, the program has now officially gifted more than 300 million books to children around the world.
Dolly’s Imagination Library announced the news via their website on Oct. 17.
“This November, at the peak of its celebratory 30th anniversary year and in perfect harmony with National Family Literacy Month, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is marking a breathtaking milestone: over 300 million books gifted to children since the program began in 1995!” a statement read.
“Just two years after crossing the 200 million mark, the Imagination Library has soared to new heights, now gifting an incredible 3.4 million books each month to children around the world and will deliver its 300 Millionth book this fall,” it continued.
Parton founded the Imagination Library in her hometown of Sevier County, TN, after being inspired by her own father’s illiteracy.
“Before he passed away, my Daddy told me the Imagination Library was probably the most important thing I had ever done. I can’t tell you how much that meant to me because I created the Imagination Library as a tribute to my Daddy,” Parton said in a YouTube video posted in 2023. “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.”
Parton’s father, Robert Lee Parton Sr., worked in the mountains of East Tennessee as a sharecropper and later owned a small tobacco farm and acreage. Robert, who went by “Lee,” died in 2000.
Dolly’s Imagination Library sends free books to children across the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia and Ireland from birth to age five, hoping to inspire a love of reading that persists throughout childhood and into adulthood.
To date, Dolly’s Imagination Library has worked with more than 2,800 local program partners who bring the country icon’s dream to life across the world.
“Of course, I have not done this alone,” she said in the video. “The real heroes of our story are the thousands of local organizations who have embraced my dream and made it their own. They raise millions of dollars each year and wake up every day with a passion to make sure their kids have every opportunity to succeed.”
