Just a week into the launch of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library around southern Illinois and White County is already at about 35% of it’s 687 age 0-5 population signed up. That’s a great start, but Beth Conner, owner at Little Sprouts and a steering committee member instrumental in bringing the program to White County says she’s convinced we can do better. She spoke at the Carmi Kiwanis Club Thursday to educate members about and encourage the club’s participation to bring monthly books to every child in White County at no charge to their family.
Through just over a week, White County has signed up about 238 of the county’s estimated 687 age appropriate children. In neighboring Hamilton County, where the program was established thanks to the Women’s Leadership Council there back in 2019 is at 57% with 255 of the county’s 447 eligible youngsters.
(More at https://www.wrul.com/local-news/hamilton-county-chamber-dinner-awards-locals)
They’ve issued well over 6,000 books since launching there. Gallatin County is at about 35% with 79 children out of 223 eligible signed up there. In Wayne County, only 147 of 939 eligible kids are signed up, only 16%. In Edwards County, where they have no local sparkplug like Conner, only 9% of children are signed up or 33 of 363 eligible.
The launch has provided a nice springboard. Conner says she thinks once books start getting into homes and parents start sharing more information with friends and loved ones, it will flourish further.
Our hope is that whenever kids start receiving these books and people are really seeing what they look like, because they’re handpicked by early childhood educators, when people see the quality of these, I think it’s gonna blossom even more. Grandparents will be more likely to donate and it’s such a small amount of money to fund a child for one year.
That cost to fund a free book for a child once a month for a year…$13.30. And while signing kids up is important, funding the program is equally paramount. The state of Illinois has already kicked in $1.6 million to launch it across the state. And now, it’s up to local communities to stand up and leverage their belief in the program’s importance by making donations as well which can come from individuals, organizations, churches, businesses, pretty much anyone and in any amount. You can learn more about the program, sign up a child, or donate at https://www.givesi.org/readsi/.
Aside from meeting funding goals, the challenge is getting the program in front of the region’s hard to reach and low-income families who Conner says are far more worried and busy figuring out how they’re going to put food on the table than putting books in their children’s hands. The importance and benefit to reading to children can’t be dismissed.
90% of physical brain development occurs within the first 3 years of life, when a baby forms more than a million new neural connections per second. When a child enters kindergarten ready for school, there’s an 82% chance that the child will master basic skills by age 11 compared to 45% for children not ready for school. Later in life, at risk children who don’t receive high quality childhood experiences are 25% more likely to drop out of school, 40% more likely to become teen parents, and 60% less likely to attend college. Investment in high quality early childhood programs for at risk children from birth to age 5 returns a 7-10% return on investment through improved education, health, social and economic outcomes, increased productivity, and the decreased need for social spending. These children are the future of our community and I hope I’ve convinced you that this program is worth supporting. There’s no better way to invest in the future success of Carmi than by helping it’s youngest
members thrive.
Carmi Kiwanis Club President Kelly Northcott was one of the first to sign her youngest up and said the club’s board of directors would discuss the club’s donation at their next board meeting.
Also Thursday, Kiwanis formally inducted it’s third new member this year by welcoming Jillian Garner. The mother of six is the new branch manager at Banterra Bank’s Carmi location. She was sponsored by member Mary Lee Saunders.
Coming up at next week’s meeting, the club will welcome reigning White County Fair Queen Brenna Russell ahead of the 145th annual event. Russell will crown the next fair queen on Monday, August 5th. Learn more about events coming up August 3rd – 10th at http://www.whitecountyfair.com.
