Dana Fishback’s 9-year-old daughter wants to be Dolly Parton for Halloween, with a wig and a rhinestone outfit that is “very pink and girly and glitzy.”
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Her daughter Marissa’s appreciation for Parton came early and not, initially, from the singer’s signature look or her music. It was her books.
From the ages 3 to 5, Marissa got a new storybook mailed to her home in College Park every month from Parton’s charity.
“She would see her picture when she received the book,” Fishback said. “And I’d be like, ‘Yes, Dolly Parton sent you this book.’ And it was really special.”
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has given 300 million free books to children in five countries since 1995. More than 65,000 of those books were gifted to children in Orlando thanks, in part, to the Rotary Club of College Park, which sponsors the program locally.
Since Parton’s death on Aug. 25, the Rotary Club — which helps get books into the hands of more than 900 children in College Park, Lockhart, Pine Hills and Rosemont — has seen an outpouring of families looking to sign their children up.
The club had to pause new enrollments due to a shortage of funding, but hopes a renewed interest in Parton and her book program will spark new donations and the ability to serve more children.
“The books that they send, they always had such a good meaning behind them,” Fishback said. “A story with, like, a nice lesson. Very Dolly Parton.”
Parton founded the book program in her home county of Sevier, Tennessee with the mission of “inspiring kids to love to read.”
In her 2020 book, “Dolly Parton: Songteller, My Life in Lyrics,” Parton wrote that her father missed out on opportunities because he never learned to read. She started her book club, she wrote, hoping to keep young children from suffering the same fate.
The 10-time Grammy winner — who penned more than 3,000 songs in her lifetime and had no shortage of accolades and achievements — said getting books into children’s hands was “the most important thing I had ever done.”
The program relies on local partners, like Rotary, to help get the books to children in their communities. The Imagination Library pays some of the costs, but the local groups must chip in, too. Families living in sponsored areas can sign their children up, so long as the local partner has enough funding.
“The only requirement Dolly has … you have to promise to read the books to the kids. That’s it,” said Bryan Burns, a Rotary member whose 2-year-old son is enrolled in the program. “I jokingly tell people, be careful because sometimes we’re trying to get something done, or we try and turn on the TV, and he’ll come to us with a book. He loves to read, which is cool.”
The program provides a free book a month from birth until a child’s fifth birthday. The first book that all participants receive in the mail is “The Little Engine That Could.” The final book — “Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!” — is sent just before they start school.
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Parton’s charity charges the local partner about $2.50 per book. The local Rotary Club’s annual budget for the program, which supports the children currently enrolled, is $25,000.
“Our 65,000 books that we’ve delivered, it’s thousands upon thousands of hours of time spent with children,” said D.J. Jones, a Rotary member who helps administer the program. “And you can’t overstate the value of that.”
Longtime Rotary member Frank McMillian founded the local chapter of the book club in 2012. At first, the books were offered only to children living in College Park with a 32804 ZIP code. The first shipment of books went to just 13 children, as McMillian and the club struggled to get the word out.
“We would catch people with their strollers and say, ‘You want to enroll in the Imagination Library?’” McMillian said.
The program grew by word of mouth. In 2020, hoping to get books into the hands of less-affluent families, Rotary expanded the program to children living in ZIP codes 32805, 32808 and 32810.
As the local initiative grew, Jones said Parton’s charity worked with them — offering tips on fundraising, digital artwork for email campaigns and access to email marketing software. In a sense, he said, Parton’s charity seeds smaller charities around the country and world.
“I’m still learning the ropes. But Dolly’s foundation, they want you to succeed,” Jones added.
Fishback was invited to sign up years ago while at a College Park holiday parade with her family.
“I feel really privileged that we got into it when we did and that my daughter, even though she was so young, knew of Dolly Parton,” she said. “My daughter really looked forward to it every month.”
Thanks to the Imagination Library, her daughter amassed a small library of books of her own.
“She would have her books in her bed and read them to her little stuffed animals, like a teacher,” Fishback said.
Those interested in learning more about the program or making a donation can find information at www.cprbooks.com
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