Dear Panhandle Bookworms,
At Panhandle Book Club Inc., we are incredibly proud to sponsor Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in Santa Rosa County. This program has been a labor of love since we first put pen to paper in 2021. When we went operational, we set a pilot limit of 400 registrations to ensure we could provide uninterrupted service and manage our resources effectively. Today, after barely 3 months, we have 370 kids who are already or soon will be receiving books, bringing the joy of shared reading to their homes each month.
Recently, we experienced an exciting but unexpected surge in interest, with over 200 new registrations coming in over a two-day period. This overwhelming response is a testament to the community's enthusiasm for early childhood literacy and the positive reputation of The Imagination Library. However, it also presents us with a significant challenge. Currently, we are not able to expand past the pilot limit of 400 children for two reasons: 1) we do not have the funding to approve all of these registrations immediately, and 2) we are in the middle of making important changes that will make growing to county-wide capacity more efficient.
Our Commitment to Families
The board takes its mission seriously when we approve your registration, as we are committing to sponsoring your child's participation in this program until they age out of the program or move out of our covered area--and not before. For this reason, we strive to be mindful of our resources and only approve registrations we can honor for the full possible 5 years of participation. Individually, it doesn't take much! Just $130 pays for all 60 books for one child. We want your kids to enjoy the experience through the end, right up to the graduation book. We also want children to reach as many families as possible with the resources that we have. For this reason, going forward, we will approve the oldest children on our waiting list first. As children exit the program on their 5th birthday, new children will be approved to take their place. This is a temporary measure and will last until we have secured the resources needed to fund all waitlisted children.
Our Commitment to Expanding the Program
During this pilot period, we've learned a LOT about the ins and outs of running a DPIL affiliate, and we've gained invaluable insight about what caused the program fizzle in our community before. We are working very hard to apply the lessons learned by others in the past, but there have been other lessons that just had to come to us through experience. One of them is that we need to make a small but important change to the structure of our affiliation with the Dollywood Foundation. The smaller the number of active kids in our program, the easier the transition will be. This is another reason why it is important to keep our enrollment down until the transition is complete. We are making this change to our Escambia County affiliation as well, so that things will go more smoothly when we launch that program in 2025.
While we cannot approve all 200+ new registrations right now, we want to assure you that we are actively working on securing additional funding with an even greater sense of urgency now that we have a waitlist. Our goal is to enroll every child in Santa Rosa County and Escambia County who can benefit from this wonderful initiative. Early literacy is crucial for a child's development, and we are committed to making sure every child has the opportunity to receive free, high-quality books delivered to their home each month. Our need is great, but so are our kids!
How You Can Help
1. Spread the word: Let your friends, family, and neighbors know about the Imagination Library and the need for more funding, specifically for our affiliate. If your child is already receiving books through us, share about IL on social media. Promote our page and let others know about the program's positive impact on your littles.
2. Engage Local Businesses: Do you have a favorite local business that loves supporting the community, early literacy, or both? Encourage them to contact us about partnering to support the Imagination Library of Santa Rosa County, of Escambia County, or both! Businesses interested in partnering with us can contact us at info@panhandlebookclub.org or call us at (448) 400-7708.
We believe in this program, in our kids, and in our community's ability to bring this program to our kids. Let's make it happen!
Sincerely,
Dr. Moffatt
Board Chair
Related Posts
