{"id":44335,"date":"2024-06-13T19:19:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T23:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/?p=44335"},"modified":"2024-06-10T12:21:28","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T16:21:28","slug":"acpl-announces-campaign-to-bring-dolly-partons-imagination-library-to-allen-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/acpl-announces-campaign-to-bring-dolly-partons-imagination-library-to-allen-county\/","title":{"rendered":"ACPL Announces Campaign to Bring Dolly Parton\u2019s Imagination Library to Allen County"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Allen County Public Library and the ACPL Foundation announced a new fundraising campaign to bring Dolly Parton\u2019s Imagination Library to the children of Allen County. Dolly Parton\u2019s Imagination Library is dedicated to inspiring a love of reading by gifting books each month to children from birth to age five, free of charge through funding shared by state and local community partners. Children must be registered by a parent or guardian to receive the books. There is no charge to register or receive the books. Age-appropriate books are mailed directly to the homes of registered children each month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out of Indiana\u2019s 92 counties, 77 are already fully covered by the program. At its February board meeting, the ACPL Foundation voted to create a committee dedicated to bringing the program to Allen County. Upon launch, Allen County would be the largest county in Indiana with the program. Nearly 900 Allen County families have already expressed interest in the program via Dolly Parton\u2019s Imagination Library website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere at the ACPL, our children\u2019s services are second to none. I have complete confidence that when a child uses our library, they will leave with the foundation to be a lifelong reader. But equally important is the need for children to have books in their homes,\u201d said ACPL Executive Director Susan P. Baier. \u201cWe know that 1 in 5 young children do not have a book of their own and that\u2019s why I am so thrilled our Foundation wants to help us close that gap through Dolly Parton\u2019s Imagination Library!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The State of Indiana is also putting its support behind the project through Governor Eric Holcomb\u2019s 2023 Next Level Agenda. According to imaginationlibrary.com, the State allotted $6 million as part of \u201ca community share to expand the program to every zip code in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI learned from a very young age that reading is the key to education and opportunity,\u201d Gov. Holcomb said. \u201cThe ability to read can transport children to places they have never been before and open doors they never knew existed. By making Dolly Parton\u2019s Imagination Library available in every zip code, we are giving Hoosier children the tools they need for literary success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to make the program a reality, the ACPL Foundation must raise $100,000 to fund the launch and sustain the first two years. Today\u2019s press conference kicked off a fundraising campaign to encourage donations of any amount to the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the first to donate to the project were Baier and former ACPL Executive Director Jeff Krull who led the library for 28 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI dedicated my career to serving the families of Allen County and when I was given the opportunity to continue that work by donating to this project, I knew I wanted to be involved,\u201d said Krull. \u201cThere is nothing this library, and this community, cannot do when it rallies around a common goal. It\u2019s just like the little engine in Dolly\u2019s favorite book says \u2013 \u2018I think we can, I think we can!\u2019 But for this project, I\u2019ll go the little engine one better: I KNOW we can!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fundraising will continue until the goal is met. The community is invited to make donations at acpl.info\/imaginationlibrary or by visiting any ACPL branch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Allen County Public Library and the ACPL Foundation announced a new fundraising campaign to bring Dolly Parton\u2019s Imagination Library<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":44336,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2301],"tags":[22575,22572,6365,15944,22574,22573],"class_list":["post-44335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-general-news","tag-2023-next-level-agenda","tag-acpl-foundation","tag-allen-county-public-library","tag-dolly-parton-imagination-library","tag-eric-holcomb","tag-susan-p-baier"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/acpl-imagination-library.jpeg?fit=1016%2C564&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YQd9-bx5","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 08:17:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44335"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44337,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44335\/revisions\/44337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}