ROCKFORD, Mich — Chloe Cutter is falling in love with reading with every free book delivered to her home, courtesy of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.
The soon-to-be three-year-old is learning numbers, colors, and new words with the various age-appropriate titles sent in the mail each month.
"She loves any book about animals. And if there's a baby animal, all the better," said mom Emily Cutter. "She loves to get a new book. She runs right up to the house, she's ready to come inside and read. It's the easiest day to get her to come inside from playing of all the days."
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library started in 1995 in the country music star's home state of Tennessee. The library system has now spread across the country and to many parts of West Michigan.
The program sends a book to children ages zero to five once a month at no cost to families.
Kate Purvis founded Early Bird Books to bring the program to Rockford, Belmont and Comstock Park.
The affiliate organization fundraises to cover the cost of books sent out locally.
"Our first month, we signed up over 400 children from the Rockford and Belmont area, which was beyond our expectations for what we thought would happen. And to this date, we have registered over 1600 children. And as of last month, mailed over 15,000 books," Purvis told FOX 17 News. "Our organization pays $2, on average $2.20 per book to deliver this. So to support one child for a year, we need to raise about $30, which is incredibly cheap for giving 12 books to one child."
Kids graduate the program with dozens of books and extra preparation to head to school.
"They have a higher degree of exposure to early literacy elements like vocabulary, books, books, structure, sentence structure, and they're ready for kindergarten," said Purvis.
Chloe is building her skills and enjoying all the time bonding and reading with her mom.
Her big sister, who was also enrolled in the program, is now in kindergarten.
"It's a true love that they have. It's not something that I'm asking them to do. And it's not just about spending time with me, although that's certainly part of it for them, but that they love the books for themselves."
Early Bird Books is being recognized by Kent District Library with a Literacy Champion Award this month.
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is marking a big milestone- the 200 millionth book- with a special giveaway. Seven lucky bookmarks will go out with books this month.
According to Purvis, winners receive an autographed photograph, a personalized letter from Dolly, a video chat with Dolly herself, and tickets to Dollywood.
To learn more about Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and to learn if the program is available near you, visit the website.
To learn more about Early Bird Books or to sign up, click here.
FOX 17 and our parent company, E. W. Scripps, run a campaign called “Give a Child a Book” to purchase books at different Title 1 schools. Over the last four years, we have worked with GRPS and last year we were able to purchase 7,531 books which went to East Leonard Elementary, Cesar E. Chavez Elementary and Kent Hills Elementary. Each child was able to pick out 4-5 books in the fall and 4-5 books in the spring.
On Wednesday, September 6, The Scripps Howard Foundation is matching all donations up to $250,000 for one day only. 100% of the donations will go to purchasing books for select Grand Rapids Public Schools students, from kindergarten through third grade.
On September 6 only, if you donate $6, that turns into $12 which means TWO books for deserving students.
To learn more, click here.
