A few years ago, Pocahontas County was fortunate to be included in the program Imagination Library, created by Dolly Parton to get books into the hands of preschool children. It’s a free program for children from birth to their fifth birthday. Every month, a book arrives in the mail for every eligible child. What a wonderful way to introduce reading and books to children!
We worked very hard to register children in our county for this program. We had a launch party, and through lots of effort, we saw just over half of the eligible children in the county registered and in the program.
Sadly, the Legislature (who funds this venture in West Virginia) had to cut funds, and eliminate counties from the program. Pocahontas was one of the 24 counties cut from Imagination Library. It was a blow, but there wasn’t much we could do at that point.
Two weeks ago, I received a letter announcing that four counties had been reinstated to Imagination Library, and Pocahontas was one of them! This means that if your child was registered before, you don’t need to do a thing. They are still in the database, and books will begin arriving again very soon. If you have moved or changed your address, please call one of the libraries and give us your new information; the post office will not forward the books to your new address, so in order for your child to receive them, we have to let Charleston know of any address changes.
If your child is under five years of age, he or she is eligible to join the program. Just visit any of the PCFL branches and fill out the short application card. Your child will begin receiving books within six weeks of registration. Once they celebrate their fifth birthday, they “graduate” from the program. If you have any questions, please contact the library at 304-799-6000.
Let’s see if we can get every child registered this time.