On Sept. 25 at precisely 9:25 a.m., Canyons School District and the Canyons Education Foundation celebrated “Dolly Day” by announcing a new partnership that will put books into the hands — and mailboxes — of Canyons District’s youngest learners.
Through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, children living within Canyons District’s boundaries can sign up to receive a free, age-appropriate book mailed directly to their homes from birth until their fifth birthday.
The initiative, funded through generous donations to the Canyons Education Foundation, is designed to foster a love for reading long before children take their first steps into a kindergarten classroom.
“There are few skills as important for a child than learning to read. But raising a reader doesn’t begin the first day of kindergarten, and it doesn’t happen only between the hours nine to five,” said Canyons Superintendent Dr. McKay Robinson. “It happens when a parent reads one more story at bedtime. When a grandparent, aunt, or uncle shares a favorite book. When a teacher helps a child discover that magical moment when the words on a page start to make sense.”
The announcement was made during a morning devoted to doing just that: reading together. Preschool-aged children and their caregivers gathered in the library at Glacier Hills Elementary for stories prior to receiving their first Imagination Library books.
Funded through the Foundation—the district’s nonprofit fundraising arm— in partnership with Utah-based Operation Literacy, the program provides books at no cost to participating families.
“We are reaching children before they enroll in our schools and helping families build a foundation for literacy from birth,” Dr. Robinson added.
Families with children under the age of five who live in Canyons School District boundaries — the cities of Cottonwood Heights, Draper, Midvale, and Sandy and townships of Alta, Brighton, and White City — are eligible to register.
“Imagine going to the mailbox to find a package with your name on it. You open it, and inside is a book that’s yours to keep. Then another arrives the following month,” said Canyons Education Foundation President Quinn Sperry. “Imagine the family conversations those books will spark — the adventures they’ll share.”
By the time a child who registers at birth reaches age five, they can amass a library of 60 books.
The late Dolly Parton launched the Imagination Library in 1995 as a tribute to her father. Though she considered him the smartest man she ever knew, he never learned to read or write, which she’s publicly stated probably kept him from realizing all of his dreams.
The program has grown over 31 years from serving children in Tennessee where Parton grew up in poverty to reaching more than 3 million children around the world.
Parton has often drawn on her own childhood for inspiration as a songwriter and author. Her song and picture book, “Coat of Many Colors,” was built around a story her mother told her while sewing a coat for her from scraps of fabric.
That same tradition — families sharing stories — is at the heart of the Foundation’s gift, Robinson said. “We’re working to make reading part of the culture in Canyons, in our schools, in our homes, and in our communities.”
Canyons is currently the largest school system in Utah to offer this districtwide, said Sperry, noting the Foundation is committed to raising the funds needed to sustain the program.
He thanked the state and city elected officials who came for the “nine-to-five” announcement, noting its alignment with Utah’s efforts to make early literacy a priority. “It takes all of us, on many levels, working together to raise strong readers,” Sperry said.
