By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Dane G. Hansen Foundation has approved a grant program that could provide books for 12,000 children birth to 5 in 26 northwest Kansas counties.
The initiative — NWKansas Reads — will fund two programs that provide books to the families of young children: The Dolly Parton Imagination Library and Turn a Page, Touch a Mind. Ellis County already participates in both of these programs, but some areas of northwest Kansas will be able to offer the programs for the first time.
Counties included in the grant are Cheyenne, Cloud, Decatur, Ellis, Gove, Ellsworth, Graham, Jewell, Lincoln, Logan, Mitchell, Norton, Osborne, Ottawa, Phillips, Rawlins, Republic, Rooks, Russell, Saline, Sheridan, Sherman, Smith, Thomas, Trego and Wallace.
An Imagination Library program has been active in Ellis County since 2012. Dolly Parton’s original vision for the Imagination Library was to foster a love of reading among preschool children and their families in her home county of Sevier, Tenn., by providing them with the gift of a specially selected book each month, according to the Hansen Foundation.
To find a local sponsoring agency in your county or to register your child for the program, click here.
Lori Hertel, a local therapist, help created the program in Ellis County in memorial of her daughter, Ana, who loved to read.
The Imagination Library provides free books each month to children who are birth through 5 years old. Age-appropriate books are mailed to the children’s homes. For babies, they include board books, and as the children get ready to graduate from the program they receive a book on beginning kindergarten.
There are no income requirements to participate in the program.
Dana Stanton, Ellis County program coordinator, said early reading is the best predictor of future academic success for children.
“Early reading and children playing with books is important. Parents having children sit in their laps and parents reading to their children sparks in young children an interest in literature and hopefully they become a lifelong reader,” Stanton said.
Ninety percent of a child’s brain development occurs within the first five years of life, and this a large part of why the Dane G. Hansen Foundation has decided to focus on early childhood reading.
The local Imagination Library program has struggled with funding. It is completely funded through private funds and grants, Stanton said. When the program’s reserves fall below six months, the program has to stop enrolling children. The local program was at that point until the foundation announced its grant.
Ellis County currently has 709 children enrolled in the Imagination Library program. It costs $25 per year to send each child a book each month. This equals about $17,000 per year in expenses. Since the program started, it has provided 40,173 books to 1,412 in Ellis County.
Stanton said the program especially helps low-income families who might not have money in their budgets to purchase books for their homes.
Stanton said this is a great gift to the community of Hays and the communities of northwest Kansas.
Because the foundation has agreed to fund the Imagination Library for at least five years, the charitable giving that was going to the Imagination Library can be targeted elsewhere.
Turn a Page, Touch a Mind works through medical clinics and health departments. Medical professionals discuss with parents the importance of reading aloud to their children during well-child and immunization visits from ages 6 months through 5 years. The families receive a book for their children at these visits.
Reading promotion as a part of pediatric care has been proven to increase vocabulary and early literacy skills of young children, according to the program.
The program was created and funded by Kansas Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, but the temporary partnership with the Dane G. Hansen Foundation will allow the program to provide more books at more locations in northwest Kansas, said Betsy Wearing, Hansen Foundation coordinator of communications, programs and new initiatives.
In Ellis County, Pediatric Center at HaysMed and Hays Family Medicine both participate in the program. To find a complete list of the participating programs in your area click here.
Wearing said the foundation hopes to evaluate the NWKansas Reads program at the end of five years to see if it is having an effect on kindergarten readiness. Improving kindergarten readiness has also been targeted by the Kansas State Board of Education as a goal for school accreditation.