Keep Dolly's Legacy on Every Bookshelf
Dolly Parton spent her life making sure kids everywhere had a chance to fall in love with reading. Through Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, more than 16,000 children right here in the Portland Metro Region receive a free, high-quality book in the mail every month — from birth until they turn five.
That's not a small thing. Early literacy shapes everything that comes after it: vocabulary, confidence, curiosity, a love of learning that follows a child into the classroom and beyond. Dolly understood that better than almost anyone, and she built a program that keeps working long after the ribbon-cuttings and the headlines fade.
Now it's on all of us to keep it going.
United Way of the Columbia-Willamette is proud to help power the Imagination Library across our region, and we're asking our community to step up in Dolly's honor. Every dollar donated helps cover the cost of providing books to a child enrolled in the program - a direct, tangible way to make sure her legacy doesn't just live in our memories, but on bookshelves in homes across Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, and Clark counties.
Here's how you can help:
- Donate to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library today here and help us reach even more children in our region.
- Enroll a child ages 0–5 for free here — because every kid deserves a book of their own.
- Spread the word. Share this with a friend, a neighbor, or a parent who might not know the program exists.
Dolly once said a book can take you anywhere you want to go. Let's make sure every child in our region has that chance — for years to come.