Members of the Early Childhood Innovation Center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Institute for Human Development joined in a celebration recognizing statewide funding for @DollyParton’sImaginationLibrary in Missouri. The program makes it possible for every child aged 0-5 to receive age-appropriate books each month free of charge.

As part of the celebration, Kansas City’s Folly Theater became the DOLLY theater for the day to host the event. Commissioner of Education Dr. Karla Eslinger welcomed guests from across the state while Governor Mike Parson and First Lady Teresa Parson were on hand to mark the expansion of the reading program.

Governor Parson noted that since the program launched in November 2023, Missouri has enrolled more than 137,000 children in the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program. He hopes that Dolly’s visit to Missouri will raise awareness so the program will reach the remaining 262,000 Missouri children who are eligible to participate.

The statewide expansion of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library was made possible through legislation spearheaded by then State Senator Karla Eslinger and signed into law by Governor Parson in 2022. Governor Parson and state legislators also fully funded the program by approving $11 million in the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Fiscal Year 2024 and 2025 budgets for the distribution of books.

All Missouri children under five years old are eligible to register for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. There is no deadline to register. To receive books, a parent or guardian must register their child on the Imagination Library national website at https://bit.ly/4cG880V. Books will be mailed directly to the homes of registered children every month, until their fifth birthday.