Stocker Foundation promotes Imagination Library program

The Stocker Foundation held a fundraiser at Sprenger Stadium in Avon on July 30 to help promote newly launched Lorain County Imagination Library.

The fundraiser gave fans of the Lake Erie Crushers the opportunity for parents to sign up their children in addition to accepting donations for the program which provides free books to children younger than the age of five.

According to Stocker Foundation Executive Director Patricia O’Brien, since launching July 1, 2017, organizers have signed up 3,000 children in Lorain County out of an estimated 17,000 who are eligible as determined through Census data.

“It has been really amazing,” O’Brien said. “The response from families around the county has been tremendous.”

O’Brien added the program is expanding much quicker than anticipated and they are ahead of schedule in reaching out to Lorain County families in an effort to promote and improve literacy.

“We had a launch event at the end of June,” she said. “Since then, it has been word of mouth.

“We have a wonderful volunteer pool of about 40 people who have been handing out pamphlets.”

Started by Dolly Parton in 1995 as a way to encourage a love of reading and literature, the program provides children with a different book each month through the mail.

Currently, the program provides books to over one million children across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom through 1,600 local programs.

The first book received by each child is the classic, “The Little Engine that Could,” and just prior to starting kindergarten, participating youngsters receive “Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!”

The catalogue of books are selected by a committee of children’s book authors, teachers, mental health professionals and additional early childhood education stakeholders.

If parents register their children at birth, they will receive about 60 books by the time the youngsters reach kindergarten.

With the start of school approaching, O’Brien said they will target pre-school programs in Sheffield Village, Sheffield Lake, Elyria and Oberlin with outreach events.

While the program is free for families and children to participate in, running the program costs about $25 per child each year.

The Stocker Foundation is encouraging donations to support the continued growth of the program.

Donations can be made online at http://peoplewhocare.org/funds/community-funds/loraincounty-imagination-library or by mail to: Lorain County Imagination Library, c/o Community Foundation Lorain County, 9080 Leavitt Road, Elyria, Ohio 44035