On Thursday, we learned Knoch School District will be participating in the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which sends students a free book every month.

Parton, the iconic performer and cultural icon, founded the Imagination Library in 1995 to promote literacy in Sevier County, Tenn., where she was born. Five years later, in 2000, the Imagination Library expanded beyond the county borders to any community that wanted to participate in the program.

It’s become truly international, with Imagination Libraries serving United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and the Republic of Ireland. More than 2.5 million children have participated, and the Imagination Libraries have given out more than 213 million books in total.

It works like this: In a participating community, any family with a child 5 or younger can sign up to get a free book in the mail each month. The project is partly funded by Parton and partly by the community that starts the program.

Knoch’s program is being funded by more than $30,000 in donations from the community. The cost works out to about $5 per participating child, according to David Foley, Knoch School District superintendent.

The Imagination Library has a truly touching backstory — Parton was inspired to create a literacy program in part because her father never learned to read and write. Before he died, he told her that the library was probably the most important thing she’d ever done.

Even in 2023, literacy is a major concern in the United States. The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy estimates that as many as 54% of American adults read at or below a sixth-grade level.

Literacy is a way to lift families out of poverty. It gives people the tools for self-sufficiency and self-improvement. It gives them the ability to learn new skills and get new jobs, among other things.

Literacy experts have long known that one way to improve literacy is to instill a love of reading and of books in children starting at a young age. The Imagination Library sets out to make that a reality for every family, regardless of their resources.

No wonder Parton’s father was so proud. Even with as much charity work as she’s done, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library might be the project of hers with the greatest impact on the world.

Knoch is the first school district in Butler County to join the Imagination Library program — we hope it’s not the last.

— JK