Fostering Literacy: Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library

One key aspect of Sigma Tau Delta’s Mission Statement is serving society by fostering literacy. With over 880 active chapters in the Society, we have the potential to make an incredible impact upon international literacy efforts. Every academic year Sigma Tau Delta’s Student Leadership committee chooses a philanthropic project to spearhead across the Society. This year the Student Leaders are encouraging the entire English Honor Societies family—Sigma Tau Delta, The International English Honor Society; Sigma Kappa Delta, The English Honor Society for Two-Year Colleges; and National English Honor Society (NEHS) for High Schools—to participate in the Student Leadership International Project: Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The project will help raise funds to provide books to enhance the literacy of children in low-income communities.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library

The Imagination Library fosters a love of reading among preschool children and their families by providing one specially-selected book each month from birth to the child’s fifth birthday. According to David Dotson, the president of The Dollywood Foundation, “Dolly started the Imagination Library as a gift to the children in her home county [in East Tennessee]. We never dreamed this effort would now span several countries and will soon attain an incredible milestone—gifting books to 1 million children per month.” The Imagination Library’s 2015 Annual Report highlighted some of the program’s achievements during its 20^th anniversary year:

2 million books donated in 2015
9 million books donated since 1995
A new book is gifted every 3 seconds
Over 915,000 children received a book in December

The program has expanded far beyond America and now operates in Canada, the U.K., and Australia, with additional efforts in Belize to discover the program’s potential effectiveness in emerging countries.

Fostering Literacy at the Chapter Level

This year Sigma Tau Delta has the opportunity to help the Imagination Library reach its goal. Join us as we aim to gift books to over 1 million children in need. Student Leadership challenges all chapters to sponsor ten children. That is only $250 to provide ten children with a year’s worth of books! Proceeds will be split among South Carolina, Arkansas, and Kentucky—three states greatly in need of our help—along with the company that produces books in Braille. Chapters may bring their fundraising money to the Sigma Tau Delta 2017 International Convention in Louisville, KY, or mail it to the Central Office by June 1. All money raised will be presented to the Imagination Library in a single check. Please do not send money directly to the Imagination Library.