SCRANTON, Pa. — Members of Leadership Lackawanna Core Program Class of 2022, in collaboration with the United Way, spent months working to bring Dolly Parton's Imagination Library Program to Lackawanna County.
The international foundation has been a huge success worldwide.
Donna Kane is one of the project participants and was very excited to help make this program available to children in Lackawanna County.
"Once we started sharing on social media the link for people to sign up, I did have a few people reach out to me saying, finally! People ask about this all the time, and it's finally here. Same with the children's library, people are always asking at the library, how do we sign up, and now they can," Kane said.
The program encourages kids to pick up a book and read by sending one age-appropriate book a month to children up to age five.
"Those years just getting any interaction with reading, even if it's someone reading to you, you know, you're not picking up a book yourself yet at that age, but towards the fifth year, you might be already spelling some words recognizing letters. All of that is essential for learning all the other subjects," said Rick Kokas of United Way of Lackawanna and Wayne Counties.
"Lackawanna County's literacy rates are very low against the national average, and we really hope to be able to help get books in more hands, more homes throughout the county," Kane added.
Those working on this project set what they felt were achievable goals, but the public interest is already exceeding their expectations.
"We already exceeding goals, we've only been up for five months, and we're about double where we should be, which is excellent, but there's so much more work to do, and so many more children will reach," Kokas said.
The Imagination Library program is free for families in Lackawanna County to sign up.
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