BUFFALO, N.Y. — Local lawmakers teamed up with the United Way of Buffalo and Erie County to make Dolly Parton's Imagination Library available for Western New York children.
Children ages birth through five years old in zip codes 14201, 14213, and 14218 can take part in the program. Once signed up, each child will receive a package in the mail each month addressed to them with a carefully selected picture book inside. The book is then theirs to keep forever.
"Imagine the importance of having a book in your house, of knowing its there, having it at your beck and call, knowing that it's yours personally. As much as we love the library, and love offering kids a wide variety, we can't replicate the feeling of ownership, of owning the knowledge of owning the story and having it around as a warm blanket whenever you need it," says Chelsey Lonberger, Buffalo Public Library System Use Outreach.
One in seven children under the age of 5 in the United States received books from the Imagination Library.
“Inspiring kids to love to read became my mission. In the beginning, my hope was simply to inspire the children in my home county but here we are today with a worldwide program that gives a book a month to well over 1 million children," Parton said on her website.
There are nearly 3,000 local partners that participate in the program and more than 247,776,662 books have been gifted since the Imagination Library was founded.
In the United States and Canada, the first book a child receives is "The Little Engine That Could," and when the child turns 5, they receive "Look Out Kindergarten, Here I come!"
For more information on how to sign up, click this link.
The United Way is also partnering with Oishei Children's Hospital in Buffalo to help parents sign their kids up as soon as they are born.