The Centerville-Farmington Rotary Club got a boost to their literacy program on Tuesday as the G.E.H.A (Government Employees Health Association) presented a $15,000 check to the Club as part of a partnership with the Dollywood Foundation, home of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The grant is an effort to support early childhood literacy by delivering monthly educational books to children aged 0-5.

“I am pleased to announce the partnership between G.E.H.A, Ogden Clinic and the Centerville-Farmington Rotary Club,” said Dr. Bryce Peterson, Rotary Community Service Chair. “As you know, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library serves children all across America. She’s delivered 250 million books so far since it was founded in the mid 90s.”

Her father was illiterate and she really has focused on this as a program to help American children, Peterson said. “One of the focuses of the Rotary Club is literacy, along with clean water and polio eradication so this felt like a very natural partnership. We’re just tickled that G.E.H.A was so willing to come forward with this generous donation.”

Through them the rotary will be able to start offering these books into the Centerville and Farmington area, pretty much immediately, he said. “At least a year and a half earlier than we had originally hoped for. So this is just fantastic.”

“At G.E.H.A we are dedicated to serving federal employees and military communities throughout the United States,” said Alexis Rolloff, Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer at G.E.H.A. “Especially here in the Salt Lake Community. This gift will specifically serve this community where we know there’s a strong presence of federal employees like active military members and military retirees and that’s with the understanding that these military families often must move with new assignments.”

These books are investments that families can own, taking with them as they do move and often passing onto other siblings or even new additions to the family, she said. “It’s also important to note that childhood literacy is an important social determinant of health.”

“I had a real interest personally in trying to improve early childhood access to books,” said Peterson. “If a child has access to more books, they’re more likely to succeed in school. Having parents who read to the child is just so incredibly helpful.”

The Rotary Club here in Centerville, for decades, has been giving dictionaries to third graders in all elementary schools in the area, he said. “As you might think, kids aren’t using dictionaries as much anymore now that they’re using tablets. So we’ve looked for a new way to try to impact the literacy programs locally as well as our international efforts. This is one that jumped out at me as an opportunity to not try to invent the wheel and instead partner with a group that already has a great delivery system in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.”

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has been able to provide the books and shipping to the child each month from their birth to their fifth birthday, Peterson said. “It’s a rotating series of books and always starts with “The Little Engine That Could.” She’s able to do that for $2.60 each month.”

The way the Rotary interfaces is two fold and they’re really two separate efforts, he said. “One is fundraising of course because we don’t accept payment from the families receiving the books and recruiting the families to sign the children up. They both take a lot of effort. We’re trying through a number of different avenues to get those children to sign up.” 

“It’s incredibly rewarding work,” said Rolloff. “As a mother myself, it was really encouraging just knowing the impact of reading books. The first book in this program is “The Little Engine That Could.” That is the first book I shared with my children and just the notion that reading can continue to have the power to learn is something that personally is really incredible.”

To register for this free program, visit imaginationlibrary.com. λ