{"id":391353,"date":"2026-09-05T12:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T12:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/391353\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T12:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T12:50:10","slug":"dolly-partons-imagination-library-gives-books-to-orlando-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/391353\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library gives books to Orlando kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dana Fishback\u2019s 9-year-old daughter wants to be Dolly Parton<\/a> for Halloween, with a wig and a rhinestone outfit that is \u201cvery pink and girly and glitzy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her daughter Marissa\u2019s appreciation for Parton came early and not, initially, from the singer\u2019s signature look or her music. It was her books.<\/p>\n

From the ages 3 to 5, Marissa got a new storybook mailed to her home in College Park every month from Parton\u2019s charity.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe would see her picture when she received the book,\u201d Fishback said. \u201cAnd I\u2019d be like, \u2018Yes, Dolly Parton sent you this book.\u2019 And it was really special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolly Parton\u2019s Imagination Library has given 300 million free books to children in five countries since 1995. More than 65,000 of those books were gifted to children in Orlando thanks, in part, to the Rotary Club of College Park, which sponsors the program locally.<\/p>\n

Since Parton\u2019s death on Aug. 25, the Rotary Club \u2014 which helps get books into the hands of more than 900 children in College Park, Lockhart, Pine Hills and Rosemont \u2014 has seen an outpouring of families looking to sign their children up.<\/p>\n

The club had to pause new enrollments due to a shortage of funding, but hopes a renewed interest in Parton and her book program will spark new donations and the ability to serve more children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe books that they send, they always had such a good meaning behind them,\u201d Fishback said. \u201cA story with, like, a nice lesson. Very Dolly Parton.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parton founded the book program in her home county of Sevier, Tennessee with the mission of \u201cinspiring kids to love to read.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her 2020 book, \u201cDolly Parton: Songteller, My Life in Lyrics,\u201d Parton wrote that her father missed out on opportunities because he never learned to read. She started her book club, she wrote, hoping to keep young children from suffering the same fate.<\/p>\n

\"DollyDolly Parton’s Imagination Library has given 300 million books to children around the world. (Christopher Furlong\/Getty Images\/TNS)<\/p>\n

The 10-time Grammy winner \u2014 who penned more than 3,000 songs in her lifetime and had no shortage of accolades and achievements \u2014 said getting books into children\u2019s hands was \u201cthe most important thing I had ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program relies on local partners, like Rotary, to help get the books to children in their communities. The Imagination Library pays some of the costs, but the local groups must chip in, too. Families living in sponsored areas can sign their children up, so long as the local partner has enough funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only requirement Dolly has \u2026 you have to promise to read the books to the kids. That\u2019s it,\u201d said Bryan Burns, a Rotary member whose 2-year-old son is enrolled in the program. \u201cI jokingly tell people, be careful because sometimes we\u2019re trying to get something done, or we try and turn on the TV, and he\u2019ll come to us with a book. He loves to read, which is cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program provides a free book a month from birth until a child\u2019s fifth birthday. The first book that all participants receive in the mail is \u201cThe Little Engine That Could.\u201d The final book \u2014 \u201cLook Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!\u201d \u2014 is sent just before they start school.<\/p>\n

Parton\u2019s charity charges the local partner about $2.50 per book. The local Rotary Club\u2019s annual budget for the program, which supports the children currently enrolled, is $25,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur 65,000 books that we\u2019ve delivered, it\u2019s thousands upon thousands of hours of time spent with children,\u201d said D.J. Jones, a Rotary member who helps administer the program. \u201cAnd you can\u2019t overstate the value of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LaurenLauren McCool reads a book her son Connor was gifted from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. (Provided by family)<\/p>\n

Longtime Rotary member Frank McMillian founded the local chapter of the book club in 2012. At first, the books were offered only to children living in College Park with a 32804 ZIP code. The first shipment of books went to just 13 children, as McMillian and the club struggled to get the word out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would catch people with their strollers and say, \u2018You want to enroll in the Imagination Library?\u2019\u201d McMillian said.<\/p>\n

The program grew by word of mouth. In 2020, hoping to get books into the hands of less-affluent families, Rotary expanded the program to children living in ZIP codes 32805, 32808 and 32810.<\/p>\n

As the local initiative grew, Jones said Parton\u2019s charity worked with them \u2014 offering tips on fundraising, digital artwork for email campaigns and access to email marketing software. In a sense, he said, Parton\u2019s charity seeds smaller charities around the country and world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still learning the ropes. But Dolly\u2019s foundation, they want you to succeed,\u201d Jones added.<\/p>\n

Fishback was invited to sign up years ago while at a College Park holiday parade with her family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel really privileged that we got into it when we did and that my daughter, even though she was so young, knew of Dolly Parton,\u201d she said. \u201cMy daughter really looked forward to it every month.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to the Imagination Library, her daughter amassed a small library of books of her own.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe would have her books in her bed and read them to her little stuffed animals, like a teacher,\u201d Fishback said.<\/p>\n

Those interested in learning more about the program or making a donation can find information at www.cprbooks.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dana Fishback\u2019s 9-year-old daughter wants to be Dolly Parton for Halloween, with a wig and a rhinestone outfit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[113,28,114,266,115,1335,139,141,140,14291,109,106],"class_list":["post-391353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-education","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-parenting-and-family","tag-social","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}