LITTLE ROCK (June 30, 2020) – ​Hope Public Schools has been awarded a $1000 grant from Arkansas Imagination Library and the Carl B. and Florence E. King Foundation in Dallas, TX. Grant funds will be used to purchase Imagination Library books in Hempstead County, which is one of 28 counties in east and south Arkansas where the King Foundation focuses its grantmaking.
Every child enrolled in the Imagination Library program receives high-quality, age-appropriate books in the mail – one book per month until a child’s fifth birthday – at no cost to families.
Parents or guardians of children under age five in Hempstead County can enroll their child in Imagination Library by going to ​https://imaginationlibrary.com/usa/find-my-program​/ or by contacting Josclyn Wiley at Hope Public Schools.
Currently, almost 40,000 books are mailed to Arkansas children each month through independent Imagination Library affiliates operating in all 75 counties in Arkansas. Farmers Bank & Trust has partnered with Hope Public Schools to provide books in Hempstead County.
Since launching in 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has become the world’s preeminent early childhood book gifting program. The Imagination Library mails more than 1.5 million high-quality, age-appropriate books each month to registered children from birth to age five.
The flagship program of The Dollywood Foundation has mailed well over 100 million free books in Australia, Canada, The Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom and the United States. The program’s impact has been widely researched, and results suggest positive increases in key early childhood metrics. Penguin Random House is the exclusive publisher for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. For more information, visit ​https://imaginationlibrary.com/​.