SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 It\u2019s not often a world-renowned star has an impact right here in our community.<\/p>\n
But in Dolly Parton\u2019s case, her legacy reached far beyond music and entertainment, putting books directly into the hands of local children.<\/p>\n
We know Dolly Parton for songs like \u2018Jolene\u2019 and \u20189 to 5\u2019 but here in NEPA her legacy lives on through something much quieter \u2013 the turning of a page. <\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely heartbreaking. The world lost such a light with Dolly Parton. People connected to her and related to her, and she made people feel special and happy. So completely heartbroken,” said Angela Bassani, President and CEO of United Way of Lackawanna, Wayne & Pike Counties.<\/p>\n
Parton started her Imagination Library in 1995, sending free, age-appropriate books to young children.<\/p>\n
The program came to Lackawanna County in 2022 through a partnership with the United Way of Lackawanna, Wayne and Pike Counties.<\/p>\n
Since then, more than 110,000 books have gone to local children and about 3000 children are currently enrolled.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was very much an advocate for literacy because she believed it opened pathways for people in their future, and she very much believed that every child, no matter how they started out their life or where they started out their life, that child deserved to be able to chase their dreams,” said Bassani.<\/p>\n
That mission is especially important in Lackawanna County, where 66% of third graders are not reading proficiently.<\/p>\n
That number rises to 76% among economically disadvantaged students.<\/p>\n
The United Way helps fund the program locally, fundraising to provide the books at a greatly reduced cost. Each one is selected based on a child\u2019s age and children know those books are theirs, something they look forward to every month<\/p>\n
“They know they\u2019re getting something in the mail every single month and they wait for it. Parents tell us all the time that they run to the mailbox when they think that their book is going to be in there. They love receiving it,” said Bassani.<\/p>\n
The United Way hopes to continue that work, carrying Parton\u2019s legacy forward, one child and one book at a time.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people are touched and affected by Dolly\u2019s passing, and I think the best way to honor Dolly is to be like Dolly. So, she chose every day to make the world a better place. You could do that in a million different ways,” said Bassani.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 It\u2019s not often a world-renowned star has an impact right here in our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-276374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}