Helaynea Croke, program coordinator with the Lloydminster Learning Council Association, is hoping to find an Alberta sponsor for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which currently provides free books for children up to age five on the Saskatchewan side of the city and surrounding area with sponsorship from SaskPower. She spoke about the program at the Rotary Club of Lloydminster meeting on Monday. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
The Lloydminster Learning Council Association is hoping an Alberta sponsor will step up to bring books from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to more families with children up to age five.
That was one of the reasons for a presentation by Helaynea Croke, Learning Council program coordinator in Lloydminster, at the Rotary Club of Lloydminster’s Monday lunch meeting.
“We are here today to hopefully acquire some Alberta funding to open that up to the Lloydminster Alberta side as well,” said Croke.
Another reason she said is to spread awareness about the importance of literacy in early childhood, and hopefully get more books in the hands of children.
“Families are able to sign up for a monthly age-appropriate book and it’s absolutely free,” said Croke.
Currently, the book program is only available to families living in the Saskatchewan side of the city and surrounding rural areas, thanks to sponsorship from SaskPower.
“We wouldn’t be able to do this without our generous community funders,” said Croke.
There are 430 Saskatchewan children currently enrolled to receive 12 free books a year from the Imagination Library, with the books selected by experts in early education.
Roughly $9,480 a year is needed to sponsor an additional 200 Alberta kids in the program.
Croke says the program reduces barriers to books, prepares toddlers for school, helps with language development and provides equal access to books for families with young children.
It also helps families that otherwise may not be able to afford books for their kids.
“I think it is really impactful in that way because there are a lot of different barriers to access books,” said Croke.
“When we are looking at rural Saskatchewan, potentially mom and dad can’t make it to the library if it’s only open three days a week if mom and dad are at work.”
Croke says the program really takes a lot of the pressure away from parents to be able to sit down and read to their kids.
She says the Learning Council as an affiliate covers the cost of the shipping and Dolly Parton, the American country music icon, covers the purchase of the books.
“She is the funder of the books,” stressed Croke.
“The books are handled by our federal partner. They come out of Ontario and they are mailed by them.
Once you get the book you get to keep it.”
Croke says families in Saskatchewan can register for the program at the Learning Council website at lloydlearningcouncil.ca or drop into the office and sign up.
The program kicked off at the Learning Council in September 2022.
The first book takes about eight to deliver due to administrative processing.
Croke says the Imagination Library is the latest of many programs the Learning Council provides.
“We wear a lot of different hats here. Our mandate is we promote life-long learning in Lloydminster and area from birth to seniors,” she said.
“So we have family literacy, seniors’ programming; we are welcoming to newcomers and we have a lot of English language programming.”
