Sullivan County Imagination Library
The Imagination Library is a cooperative effort between Governor Bredeson, the State of Tennessee, the Dolly Parton Foundation, the Kingsport Chamber Foundation, the Bristol TN/VA Chamber of Commerce and Sullivan County Imagination Library Foundation. To date 2,500 of the 8,000 children who are eligible for this program have been registered!
Children between the ages of birth and 5 years will receive an age appropriate book each month of their life at no cost to the parents! The only requirements are that the child be a resident of Sullivan County and have filled out a registration form.
If you know of a business, organization or individual who would like to donate funds to support this endeavor, donations can be sent to:
Sullivan County Imagination Library
PO Box 1403
Kingsport, TN 37662
Sullivan County Imagination Library a Sparkling success
03/03/2005
ByJ.H. OSBORNE
BLOUNTVILLE - When people call the Governor's Foundation asking how to get the books-for-children program started in their own community, Margie Maddux says she tells them to look to Sullivan County.
"I tell them if they want to know how to do this and do it right - and how to fund raise - to look at what Sullivan County has done," Maddux said Wednesday during a Read Across America event at Northeast State Community College.
Maddux was representing Gov. Phil Bredesen's Governor's Foundation at the event, which featured local dignitaries reading to a group of children.
It was organized by the Sullivan County Imagination Library.
Starting last August, every Sullivan County child from birth to age 5 has the chance to own age-appropriate books selected for distribution through the Sullivan County Imagination Library.
To date, about 2,500 children have been signed up to participate in the program.
Registration is available at all of the public libraries in Sullivan County including: Bristol, Avoca, Kingsport, Carver, Blountville, Bluff City, Bloomingdale, Colonial Heights and Sullivan Gardens. Once children are registered, they will receive a free age-appropriate book by mail each month.
The Governor's Foundation is a not-for-profit agency that offers matching funds, tangible resources and opportunities to leaders working to start the program in their own communities.
The Sullivan County Imagination Library Council - the group responsible for turning the Imagination Library dream into a reality - operates under the Kingsport Chamber Foundation as a program of the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the Bristol Chamber.
It is a model of the program Dolly Parton started in Sevier County in 1996 to spark a lifelong love of reading in children.
Bredesen and the Tennessee General Assembly included $2 million in "challenge grants" in this year's budget to stoke the effort to expand Parton's Imagination Library into a statewide reading initiative.
A local match is required, and raising the funds to sustain the Sullivan County Imagination Library will be an ongoing effort.
The cost of sponsoring one child is $27 per year.
A wide range of sponsorship opportunities is available to businesses and individuals.
To sponsor a child or make a financial contribution to the Sullivan County Imagination Library project, send your tax-deductible donation to: Sullivan County Imagination Library/Kingsport Chamber Foundation; P.O. Box 1403; Kingsport, Tenn. 37662.
Published: March 03, 2005 Kingsport Times News
Contact this Times-News contributor- J.H. OSBORNE
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