Famed country music singer Dolly Parton was in Wilmington Thursday to launch her Imagination Library in the First State.
The program offers free books to children regardless of income.
Since starting in 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has sent more than 185 million free books to children.
Joined on stage at the Wilmington Public Library by Gov. John Carney and First Lady Tracey Quillen Carney, Parton said she started the program to help children become proficient readers, no matter their financial circumstances.
“Once a month they get their little book with their own name on it. They run to the mailbox when they’re old enough to walk or get out there. And they make someone in the family read with them. I think it’s really a bonding thing, as well with the kids and the families and all that. So, it’s something that’s very precious to me,” Parton said.
Children up to five are eligible for the program, with new babies born in Delaware able to register before they go home from the hospital.
Parton said the Imagination Library donates about a million books per month.
The singer and author gifted the library with a signed copy of one her own children’s books.
In return, the Governor presented her with a box of Delaware's own Dolle’s salt water taffy.
