Rotary club raising funds for Dolly Parton book program

Feb. 14—On a yearly basis, roughly 700 babies are born in Raleigh County.

Although each one of those newborns qualifies to get a free book each month until the age of 5 as part of the Imagination Library, a national program started by Dolly Parton, Beckley Rotary Club President April Elkins Badtke said fewer than half of those newborns are signed up.

As part of a new initiative by the Beckley Rotary Club, Badtke said they're hoping to change that statistic.

"Seven hundred fifteen kids were born last year in Raleigh County and 42 percent of those kids, by the numbers that we have, are registered for Imagination Library," Badtke said. "We want to see 100 percent. And that's what we're promoting."

Imagination Library is a non-profit organization that provides thousands of books each month to registered children in participating communities throughout West Virginia. The program, which began in West Virginia in 2008, is also available to children across the United States and in other countries.

During a Beckley Rotary Club meeting Tuesday afternoon at Beckley's Historic Black Knight, Badtke said the club kicked off its February service project which is targeted at raising funds, books and awareness for the Imagination Library in the Raleigh County community.

In West Virginia, two of the main partners for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library are the West Virginia Department of Education and Marshall University's June Harless Center.

The June Harless Center acts as the fundraising arm for the Imagination Library program to help in meeting the long-term goal, which is to ensure that every child in West Virginia has access to age-appropriate books prior to entering school, according to an article on Marshall University's website.

Badtke said it costs $25 to provide a book each month for a year to one child registered for the Imagination Library.

"Our goal is $3,000 is what we're aiming to raise," she said. "We hope we raise more because the more we raise, the more kids that we can get enrolled to get a book every month until they start kindergarten."

As of Wednesday, Badtke said they had collected $859 and 179 books.

Badtke said the Beckley Rotary Club is also working on a program to make it easier for parents of newborns to be made aware and enroll in the Imagination Library. She said that program is still in the works.

Monetary donations for this program can be made on the Beckley Rotary Club's website at beckleyrotary.org. Book donations will also be accepted by Badtke at Stewards Individual Placements at 330 Harper Park Drive in Beckley.

Email: jmoore@register-herald.com