Parton, it's great to have you with us today.ĭOLLY PARTON: Well, thank you, Melissa. You can read about his rough beginnings in the new children's book "Billy The Kid Makes It Big." His story is brought to us by someone who knows a thing or two about sticking to a music career, the one and only Dolly Parton. That's what a certain dog musician named Billy the Kid would tell you. Read all our reporting here.It's really hard to make it in the music business, but if you continue to be yourself and practice and find good friends, you'll do it. Philadelphia magazine is one of more than 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and economic mobility in the city. “We want to get these books out all across the world.” “We will help people do whatever is necessary to expand the footprint of Dolly’s vision,” says Crouse. has only targeted this one zip code, another organization or coalition could launch a Dolly Parton Imagination Library in another zip code. And Crouse notes that since Foundations, Inc. hopes to expand the coverage area beyond 19133 in coming years. You can see the full 2021 reading list here.Ĭieri says that Foundations, Inc. Each age bracket has multiple bilingual selections available. This year, older kids will receive My Papi Has a Motorcycle and Blue Sky White Stars, while the organization will send the youngest ones titles like Llama Llama Hide & Seek and I Love My Mommy Because. And then on their fifth birthday, they get a customized version of Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come! In between, the reading list changes each year and is, of course, different depending on the age of the child. The first book a child receives is a customized version of The Little Engine That Could. And if you choose to make a donation to support the program, you can designate the community you want your money to reach. That comes out to $126 for a child to receive a brand new book each month from the time they are born until they age out at five. The cost passed down to the affiliate works out to $2.10 per child per month. And then we align with local affiliates.”Īccording to Crouse, the local affiliates are responsible for outreach and for covering the cost of each book, which the Dollywood Foundation purchases at below market value. We handle all of the administrative processes. “The whole idea is that we want the books to go to a home early in a child’s life, to create a love for reading at an early age,” explains Christy Crouse of the Dollywood Foundation, the nonprofit that backs the effort. Within ten weeks, the child will get a free book in the mail, and those books will keep coming each month until the child turns five. Any family with kids under five living in the 19133 zip code can fill out an online form or sign up using a paper form they can pick up at the Lillian Marrero branch of the Free Library or at the Maria de los Santos Health Center. We took a look at poverty levels around the city, and we wanted to really target an area where this literacy program was very needed.” ![]() “And we are starting with limited funding, so we chose this one zip code where we could service all the kids. “Philadelphia is gigantic,” says Elizabeth Cieri, Foundation, Inc.’s executive director of teaching and learning. estimates there are about 2,000 children in the covered age bracket within those boundaries.Ī map of the Philadelphia zip code 19133, which is the first location served by the new Dolly Parton Imagination Library in Philadelphia (Image via Google Maps) selected the North Philly zip code 19133, which is shown in the map below. ![]() ![]() And after completing some demographic research and coordinating with the city, Foundations, Inc. The rules stipulate that a local affiliate must commit to serving all children between birth and age five within a given city, county or zip code. partnered with the Free Library of Philadelphia and the city’s Department of Public Health to get the Dolly Parton Imagination Library up and running in the city. ![]() The Philadelphia branch was organized by Foundations, Inc., a Mount Laurel-based educational nonprofit that has worked extensively with schools in Philadelphia. These days, the charity mails out books to more than 1.5 million children each month. And starting in 2000, Parton’s nonprofit opened the idea up to the world, allowing anybody, anywhere to apply to become an affiliate and start a chapter in their own community. Tennessee soon adopted the program statewide. The Dolly Parton Imagination Library started in 1995 as an effort to get free books into the hands of young children in the impoverished Tennessee County where Parton was born and raised.
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