A Gloucester installment of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library went live June 1, spearheaded by Marsha Weatherwax, Pam Dishman Coleman, Nancy Dykeman, Stephanie Beach and Carolyn Haupt. The program mails one book each month to children from birth until their fifth birthday at no cost to families.
The group’s goal is to reach every child in Gloucester that is eligible for the program. According to U.S. Census data, there are an estimated 1,852 children under the age of five in Gloucester.
Weatherwax said there is a “big push right now to get the kids to sign up.” The group’s goal is to get DPIL books into family’s homes for the summer and encourage families to read to their children and for children at a more advanced reading level to begin reading aloud to their families.
“The more you read to your children, the better they read in the future,” said Coleman.
According to the Virginia Department of Education’s School Quality Profiles for Gloucester County Public Schools, 88 percent of k...