FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Friends of the Fairhope Library have donated $10,000 to the Baldwin County Imagination Library, the local chapter of the free children’s book program founded by the late Dolly Parton.
The donation will help cover registration costs for a program that currently has around 5,500 Baldwin County children enrolled.
How the Program Works
Founded in 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library distributes books to children from birth to age five, free of charge, through funding shared between the Dollywood Foundation and local community partners.
The program operates in all 67 Alabama counties. According to the Imagination Library’s website, 5.4 million books have been delivered across the state since 2004.
The mechanism is straightforward and is part of why the program works. A registered child receives an age-appropriate book in the mail, addressed to them, every month until their fifth birthday. There is no income requirement, no application review and no cost to the family.
The mail delivery is not incidental. A book addressed to a child, arriving at their home with their name on it, is a different experience than a book handed out at a clinic or a school. For many children, it is the first mail they ever receive.
Baldwin County’s Chapter
Baldwin County’s program is run by the Bay Minette Public Library, which processes applications and handles the monthly mailing of books to children throughout the county.
Joanna Bailey, library and cultural arts director in Bay Minette, oversees the local program. She said the Friends of the Fairhope Library donation will help cover registration costs.
Bailey started the Imagination Library in Baldwin County in 2022, originally serving Bay Minette and the North Baldwin communities. She took on countywide operations in 2023, when Gov. Kay Ivey announced a statewide expansion of the program.
Around 5,500 children in Baldwin County are currently registered, with a little more than 1,700 having recently graduated out at age five.
“She started this program because her father was illiterate,” Bailey said of Parton. “Because he could not continue to go to school. He had to work. He did live to see this and I know he’s looking down from heaven going ‘Look at all my daughter has accomplished.’ It’s the best thing that anybody could do because you need that reading for the foundation for school. Not just in English or something like that, but every subject, because you have to read for everything, so it’s incredibly important.”
Raise-A-Reader
Friends of the Fairhope Library is a nonprofit volunteer support group that raises funds and provides community services for the Fairhope Public Library.
Its Raise-A-Reader program provides newborn families at Thomas Birth Center with information about library programs and local resources, along with books and applications for library cards and the Imagination Library.
The design detail in that program is worth noting. Each Imagination Library application goes directly to Bailey at the Bay Minette Public Library in a pre-filled envelope. Parents need only insert the application and add a stamp.
That is a deliberate removal of friction, and it addresses the real reason enrollment programs underperform. Families do not fail to enroll because they do not value reading. They fail to enroll because a form gets set aside during the first weeks with a newborn and never gets picked up again. Handing a parent a completed envelope that needs one stamp converts a multi-step task into a single one.
“The reason that we are so involved in the Imagination Library is we realize the importance of having access to books when they’re young and the importance of parents reading to their children,” said Randal Wright, chairman of the Fairhope Public Library’s Board of Trustees. “Studies have shown that children that are read to, when they’re young and growing up, do much better in school and are much more successful.”
Why Books in the Home Matter
Wright’s reference to research reflects a substantial body of work in early literacy.
Children arrive at kindergarten with dramatically different levels of exposure to language and print, and those differences are strongly associated with the presence of books in the home and with how often an adult reads aloud.
Reading aloud does more than teach words. It builds the concept of how print works — that text runs left to right, that pages turn in order, that marks on a page carry meaning. It develops the sustained attention that classroom instruction requires. And it establishes reading as something pleasurable rather than as a task assigned at school.
Children who begin school behind in these areas tend to stay behind, because subsequent instruction assumes the foundation is in place. That is the gap a program delivering books from birth is designed to close — before school starts rather than after.
What $10,000 Covers
The Imagination Library’s funding model splits costs between the national foundation and local partners, with local affiliates responsible for raising money to cover the books mailed to children in their area.
That structure is what makes a $10,000 gift meaningful. It is not a contribution to a national organization’s general fund; it goes toward books mailed to children in Baldwin County.
Local affiliates are also the constraint on the program’s reach. A county without an affiliate has no program regardless of demand, and an affiliate that cannot raise its share cannot enroll additional children. Sustaining fundraising is the practical work behind those 5,500 registrations.
The Specialty License Plate
Following Parton’s death, a “Drive with Dolly” specialty license plate has received enough pre-commitments to go into production in Alabama.
Fifty dollars from every plate sold goes directly to the local Imagination Library partner in the county where the vehicle is registered — meaning plates registered in Baldwin County support the Baldwin County program.
Alabama requires a threshold number of pre-commitments before a specialty plate enters production, a mechanism that ensures sufficient demand before the state incurs manufacturing costs. Reaching that threshold means the plate will be available and that the revenue stream will begin.
For local affiliates, a recurring funding source tied to plate renewals is more valuable than an equivalent one-time gift, because it renews annually without a fundraising campaign behind it.
How to Enroll
Baldwin County families with children under five can register through the Bay Minette Public Library, which administers the countywide program. Families delivering at Thomas Birth Center receive materials through the Raise-A-Reader program.
There is no cost and no income requirement. Books arrive monthly until the child turns five.