Raising Readers of Cascade County invites parents with young kids to participate in the Dolly Parton Imagination library.  There are several people involved including:

• Carol from the Great Falls Public Schools
• Nikki with the Great Falls Public Library
• Cyndie with the City County Health Department

Carol: We are very excited, our first lady in Montana, Susan Gianforte has worked to fund and coordinate a statewide effort to enroll all Montana babies in the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. We are so grateful for this opportunity to include all the babies in Cascade County.

Cindy: This program is for children from birth until their fifth birthday. These books are mailed every month at no charge to the families. We are grateful to Mrs. Gianforte and her Treasurer State Foundation for doing this for all the children in the state of Montana. By reading to the kids or even having books in the household that helps the children to learn empathy, they also extend their attention span. If you think about it, how many times during the day do you use the word penguin in your conversation? That is why you read to children, is because that's how they extend their vocabulary. Children that are never read to, by the time they go to kindergarten, they have about 4,600 word vocabulary. A child that is read five books every day until they get to kindergarten have about 1,500,000 word vocabulary. That's a big gap, and we want to shrink that gap by having these books in the homes for these children, and we just want to encourage every parent to sign their kids up. We have lots and lots of things planned and we just hope that you look at this and decide to sign your kids up.

Nikki: Parents can start signing up babies and their children under four starting May 1st, we will be hosting a launch party on April 24th, and the launch party is hosted by raising readers of Cascade County, the school district, the Library Foundation, and the city county Health Department.

Carol: We have a couple ways that families and businesses, organizations in Great falls can help us right now. Just to get the word out to families. We have two things we'd love for you to consider. First of all, could you share a poster at your business or office if you have young families coming in? We would love to enroll babies as soon as they're born and we have a poster to share with you to put up. Parents can use the QR code and just sign up on their phones and they'll start getting books after about two months after they enroll. The second thing we'd love to have you include us in is if your organization or business that has events for families. We'd love to come and share the joy of reading, good tips for how to read to wiggly people and ways to enjoy books with children and get more children signed up. Our goal is to have 95% of babies in Cascade Counties enrolled by the end of the summer. Please contact me if you are able to join our effort. My number at the school district is 406- 268- 6779. My colleagues are worried and I hope they're right, that I'll be getting tons of phone calls. If you'd like to help us get all Montana Babies signed up for free books in their home till their fifth birthday, give me a call.

Other ways to request information is to email Carol at carol_paul@gfps.k12.mt.us You can also go to the Great Falls Library website at greatfallslibrary.org for more information or scan the QR code below.

Dolly Parton Registration QR Code

Thank you to First Lady Susan Gianforte and her foundation for this tremendous opportunity!

If you have a story idea or something you want to learn more about, give Randy a call at 406-788-3003 or send me an email at randall.bogden@townsquaremedia.com

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