Livestream May 5 to promote Dolly Parton’s visit to Arkansas

At 6:35 p.m. Thursday, May 5, Arkansas PBS will livestream a brief musical performance by American icon Dolly Parton.

THV 11’s Craig O’neill will also interview Parton about the success of her Imagination Library in Arkansas. The livestream will be available at: myarpbs.org/imaginationlibraryevent.

The local community is invited to a watch party hosted by the Hot Spring County Imagination Library at the Malvern-hot Spring County Library to view the livestream and enroll eligible local children in the Imagination Library.

Parton’s Imagination Library is the world’s preeminent early childhood book-gifting program. In partnership with local community affiliates like the Hot Spring County Imagination Library, the program mails high-quality, age-appropriate books to children from birth to age five in participating communities within the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland. Each child enrolled in the program receives one book per month at no cost to families.

Inspired by her father’s inability to read and write, Parton started her Imagination Library in 1995 to foster a love of reading for children within her home county. The program was first available to children in Hot Spring County in October 2018. Today, the Imagination Library mails more than 1.9 million books each month directly to children’s homes. The program’s impact has been widely researched, and results suggest positive increases in key early childhood metrics.

Currently, more than 57,000 children in Arkansas are enrolled in the Imagination Library. Since 2005, Imagination Library affiliates in Arkansas have gifted more than three million books. In Hot Spring County, a total of 23,123 books have been gifted to local children.

Online enrollment in the Imagination Library is available to local parents or guardians of children under age five. To enroll a child, visit imaginationlibrary.com.

The books are free to families; however, the local affiliate’s cost to sponsor a child for five years is $125 – which gifts a total of 60 books. To sponsor a child, go to: https://imaginationlibrary.com/usa/affiliate/ARHOTSPRINGCO/

For over 26 years, Parton’s Imagination Library has demonstrated the power and impact of the simple gift of a monthly book in the mail, helping children and families build home libraries and inspiring a love of reading.