Livestream on Thursday to promote Imagination Library

The Imagination Library of the Ouachitas will host a watch party at the Garland County Library, 1427 Malvern Ave., at 5:30 p.m. Thursday for a livestream featuring Dolly Parton.

At 6:35 p.m. Thursday, PBS will livestream a brief musical performance by Parton and a live interview with her about the success of her Imagination Library program in Arkansas. The livestream will be available at http://www.myarpbs.org/imaginationlibraryevent.

Guests can watch the livestream and register eligible local children in Imagination Library. To register for the event, email Gail Greenberg gailgberg@ gmail.com or call 501-538-7778.

“Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is the world’s preeminent early childhood book-gifting program,” the release said.

“In partnership with local affiliates, the program mails high-quality, age-appropriate books to children from birth to age 5 in participating communities within the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, 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, Dolly Parton started her Imagination Library in 1995 to foster a love of reading for the children within her home county. Today, Imagination Library mails more than 1.9 million books each month directly to children’s homes,” the release said.

Currently, almost 57,000 children in Arkansas are enrolled in Imagination Library. Imagination Library affiliates in Arkansas have gifted a total of three million books. In Garland County, 165,000 books have been gifted to local children since 2012.

Online registration in Imagination Library is available to parents or guardians of children younger than 5 years old. The local affiliate’s cost to sponsor a child for five years is $125. Visit http://www.garlandcountyimaginationlibrary.org.