Imagine that: Rotary offering free reading program

January 28, 2022 Ledger Indenpendent community 0 Comments

Caroline Crow ccrow@cmpapers.com

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Rotary president Tom Burke, along with Rotarian Allison Parker and AIS Superintendent Lisa McCane.

AUGUSTA — Dolly’s Imagination Library is a program that sends free literacy material in the form of books to children ages birth to five years, regardless of income. The program is now offered in other countries throughout the world.

To qualify, indivduals must live in an area where the program is offered. Recently, Augusta became a qualified zip code for the Imagination Library and parents are now able to sign their children up to receive free books every month.

Augusta Rotary Club President Tom Burke spearheaded the project.

“The Augusta Rotary Club decided to be sponsors for this program when applying for the annual Rotary International Grant of $1,500, which we were approved for.” Burke said.

Augusta is only the second in the surrounding county range to offer the program.

Reading to children has been statistically linked to increased literary skills and literacy readiness for children. Basically, when children begin to read, they’ll already be a step ahead of peers who were not read to or exposed to books or read to by their parents.

“We partnered with the AISD, Augusta Independent School District, Superintendent Lisa McCane. She has been very enthusiastic and supportive,” Burke said. McCane’s letter of support helped in the grant application, he said.

The Rotary Club had 40 sign-ups before the program launch. The program is dependent upon donations to keep the it running and expanding, Burke said.

“The Rotary Club will be managing the enrollment, funding, book returns, validating addresses, and Website database administration for our zip code covered areas for the next 20-plus years, hopefully. With limited funding, we agreed to only start with zip code 41002, Augusta, and hope to expand to all of Bracken County, dependent on funding,” he said.

Last November the state decided to endorse the program, covering half the cost of each book. This means that books normally costing around $13 retail are provided to the enrollees for $1.05 after the state covers its half.

Burke said that zip Code 41002 has 165 preschoolers which will cost the Rotary Club $2,000 annually, and all of Bracken County has 635 preschoolers which will cost the Rotary Club $8,000 annually. For around $13, a child will get one book each month per year.

Augusta Rotary Club sells its famous “Rotary burgers” at local events, and holds its annual pancake breakfast, which has provided sufficient funding for their past endeavors, but this particular program will need additional help to be successful and, hopefully, extend to the entire county in the future.

For donations, head over to www.augustarotaryky.com. The Augusta Rotary Foundation is a 501c3 and the donations are tax-deductible.

For enrollment, you can visit the Rotary’s website and simply click enroll, enroll on the Imagination Library website, or call 513-635-7751 to submit information over the phone.