Free books give local children a head start on reading

A national program designed to give young children a leg up on literacy is thriving in the Mat-Su.

Launched by Dolly Parton in 1996, the nonprofit Imagination Library seeks to encourage kids to read by sending a book a month to enrolled children ages birth to 5. Inspired by her father, who could not read but who Parton calls “the smartest man I ever knew”, she made it her mission to grow young readers in homes full of books.

Her efforts have flourished. Imagination Library now has a worldwide reach, with more than 1 million kids receiving books. Nearly 2,300 of them are in the Valley.

Parton says the local organizations that raise funds to support and administer the program in their communities are the “real heroes” of the Imagination Library story. For Mat-Su families, that organization is Best Beginnings, a nonprofit that shares Parton’s dream of ensuring kids have every opportunity to succeed.

Amie Collins is Best Beginnings’ executive director. She said early literacy programs like Imagination Library are critical to building the foundational skills for reading and learning that help ensure children begin school ready to succeed.

“From increasing their awareness of print concepts and phonological skills, to the developmental benefits of shared reading between a child and a caregiver, the program is truly strengthening families and setting kids up for life,” she said.

Imagination Library has been in the local community since 2009, when the first group of 44 children were enrolled to receive books. The program’s launch was part of a statewide effort to strengthen early literacy initiatives.

State funding was cut significantly in 2016 and has remained mostly flat since then. This forced some chapters to either close or reduce the number of kids served.

In 2023, the volunteer board that ran Mat-Su Imagination Library faced a critical crossroads, struggling to raise enough funds to support the program and manage its growth. That’s when Best Beginnings, which had been sponsoring a Mat-Su Imagination Library for many years, took the program directly under its wing.

Collins said the local effort got a huge boost that year when the Mat-Su Health Foundation “stepped up in a very big way” to increase its investment in Imagination Library, ensuring it was adequately staffed and available to children boroughwide for many years to come. The Foundation granted the group $40,000 that year, then added a $55,000 grant in 2024.

“That increased investment allowed us to focus our enrollment efforts and provide staffing to really grow out outreach,” she said. “In fact, in just over a year, we added over 300 new children to the program.”

The Mat-Su Health Foundation has been invested in community health and wellness since its inception in 2007. As part owner of the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, the Health Foundation has been able to channel more than $130 million of its share of hospital profits back into the community through nonprofit organizations across the borough.

“Without the support of the Mat-Su Health Foundation, we could not operate a Mat-Su chapter of Imagination Library,” Collins said. “We’ve worked hard to raise funds to support the program, but the bottom line is there just isn’t enough to support all the children who need this program.”

FIND OUT MORE

https://imaginationlibrary.com/usa/

www.bestbeginningsalaska.org