Beginning in September, families in the Prescott area can register their children for the Prescott Area Imagination Library (PAIL) and receive a free book in the mail every month from birth until the child’s fifth birthday!
The Prescott Area Imagination Library is an affiliate of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a nonprofit organization that coordinates the delivery of carefully selected, age-appropriate books to children throughout the U.S.
Years of research and dozens of studies point to the same thing: reading to children from the time they are born is critical to literacy development and academic success (see box). Research also links the presence of books in a child’s home to early childhood literacy. Armed with this knowledge and united by the shared belief that our community should be actively engaged in promoting literacy, Sunup Rotary Club, Frontier Rotary Club, Prescott Rotary Club and the Friends of the Prescott Public Library have teamed up to ensure that Prescott children have books in their homes.
Community partnerships brought this project to life. The idea began with the Read On Prescott Steering Committee (readonarizona.org/read-on-communities/read-on-prescott), a group of early childhood literacy advocates who collaborate to find ways of increasing third-grade reading proficiency rates in our community.
Committee members reached out to the Rotary clubs that became sponsors of this initiative, each contributing equally to the cost of providing books to children, with Rotary District 5495 matching those contributions. The Friends of the Prescott Public Library will cover administrative costs, and Prescott Public Library staff and volunteers will manage the registration and administrative details.
The Prescott Area Imagination Library will celebrate with a launch party at Prescott Public Library on Saturday, Sept. 14 from 10 a.m. to noon. The event will include refreshments, activities and the opportunity to register for the program.
For more information, visit prescottlibrary.info/PAIL or call 928-777-1519.
