As promised, Dolly Parton will visit Missouri to celebrate Imagination Library program

The beloved American singer-songwriter vowed to visit each state that fully embraces and adopts her literacy program, Imagination Library.

Dolly Parton is keeping her promise with a visit to the Show-Me State.

In November, Missouri became the 14th state to make Imagination Library available to every child age 5 and under in every zip code — and the first to allocate state funding to help cover the distribution costs.

Gov. Mike Parson announced Wednesday that a celebration event with Dolly Parton and the Imagination Library team is set for 11 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 27 in Kansas City. The governor will host along with First Lady Teresa Parson and the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

"Ensuring Missouri's children have a quality education is near and dear to us, and we know the earlier we can get children excited about reading and learning the better equipped they are to find success and achieve their American Dream down the road," the governor and first lady said in a news release.

"We appreciate Dolly, her team, and DESE for helping bring these quality educational resources to Missouri children and continue to encourage all eligible Missouri parents to utilize this program.”

Parton created the program in 1995 to foster a love of reading for children in her home county in East Tennessee. In 2004, it was made available to every child in Tennessee.

The program is now international, serving children in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, with more than 3 million registered and more than 244 million books given away.

Children enrolled by a parent will receive an age-appropriate book delivered to their home by mail each month at no cost to the family.

Missouri was only the 14th state to serve children in all of its ZIP codes.

The expansion was made possible by legislation and $11 million was allocated as part of the state's fiscal year 2024 budget.

The first book a child receives when they start the program, is "The Little Engine That Could." The month the child turns age 5, they receive "Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!"

Funds to manufacture the books, published by Penguin Random House, are raised by the Dollywood Foundation. The cost to distribute the books is $26 a year per child — which is covered by the state funding in Missouri.

Missouri's adoption of a statewide Imagination Library program was the result of legislation spearheaded by then state Sen. Karla Eslinger and signed into law by Gov. Parson in 2022.

More:MO becomes 14th state to offer Dolly Parton's Imagination Library to children under age 5

"As the former senator who carried the Imagination Library of Missouri legislation, to now being in the role of commissioner, this is a full-circle moment,” said Eslinger, now the state's commissioner of education, in the release.

“Since the program launched in November 2023, we have enrolled more than 137,000 Missouri children in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. We hope Dolly’s visit to Missouri will help us promote the program even further, reaching the families of the remaining 262,000 Missouri children who are eligible.”

The in-person event is invitation-only and will be filled with early childhood education stakeholders and other special guests. However, DESE has partnered with Kansas City PBS to livestream the event so the entire state can share in the celebration.

The livestream will be available at kansascitypbs.org/dolly.