Imagination Library and Reach Out and Read: A New Community Partnership

Guest Post: Claire Parrish, Public Services Director, Rice Lake Public Library

Last fall, RLPL was approached by the Rice Lake School District about starting the Imagination Library program here in Rice Lake. The representative from the district had the idea that since the district, RLPL, and Lakeview Medical Center were already working on Reach Out and Read, now would be a great time to get off the ground with Imagination Library.  We thought, why not?!  Combining our efforts for both projects has created a strong community partnership between three staples in our community and has put more books into the hands of young kiddos, so it’s really been a win-win for everyone involved.

                                                       

If you’re unfamiliar with the two programs, Reach Out and Read is a national nonprofit where medical providers give out books at wellness visits from infancy to when the child starts school. The trained doctors also encourage families to read aloud every day and provide additional early literacy tips to caregivers.  In Rice Lake, we are going a step further by providing any siblings who are older than five free books at those wellness visits and setting up a little free library in the waiting room at the clinic.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that sends books every MONTH to a child from birth to five, no matter the family’s financial background. Family’s simply need to register their child, if the program is available in their area, and books will start arriving in about 8 weeks. The financial side of things is covered by a local agency and parents never have to worry about cost. The books are selected by Imagination Library staff, and are age appropriate and high quality books. Dolly Parton is my hero!

How do we make it work?

The school district has recruited high school students to present to area groups, such as Kiwanis, to ask for financial donations to support both programs.  The hope is that most area groups will add the donation to their yearly budget. The Rice Lake High School Student Council also held a book drive, gathering hundreds of books to be given to kids through the Read Out and Read program. So, if you have the chance, utilize high school student groups for any kind of fundraiser/outreach in your community.  We can stand in front of people and ask for money until we are blue in the face, but having two high schoolers stand up and make a passionate argument for why this program is important will motivate people to pull out those checkbooks.

Lakeview Medical has set up the reading nook area in their waiting room and keeps the book case constantly filled with books. They also were more than happy to have several of their doctors trained though Reach Out and Read.  Volunteers are stepping up to help with Imagination Library work as well, entering child registration forms into the database and collecting the forms for area daycares.

RLPL has done a lot of the promotion of both programs and our Friends group serves as the fiscal agent for the Imagination Library.  We have redirected book donations from the public to Reach Out and Read and purchased furniture to help make the reading nook at the hospital more kid friendly.  We have also presented to area service organizations on both programs and are working on finding grants, like the Dollar General Literacy grants, to help support the programs in years to come.  

The whole process meant a lot of meetings to get things off the ground, but once we got the high school student groups involved, things really fell into place.  We now have regular monthly meetings to submit our Imagination Library registrations and to discuss any other needs with either program.  We continue to schedule presentations with service organizations and get the word out about the program.  Our first order was placed in March, and we are thrilled that 102 kids in the Rice Lake area will be receiving their first book in the mail in April!  It’s our hope that in the next year or two we can expand the range of Imagination Library to neighboring zip codes, getting more books into the hands of young children.