Imagination Library Books Donated to Kingman’s Venture Club

Soroptimist International of Kingman partnered with the Kingman Elks Lodge #468 in 2019 to bring the Imagination Library program to the Kingman and Golden Valley communities for five years. Our goal for the first year was to enroll 80 children; however, 94 children were registered at our registration event in November of 2019!  Since that time enrollments have continued to surpass our goals.  We currently have 716 local children enrolled in the program with 186 graduated out of the system.  We are proud to say we have impacted over 900 children’s lives to date.

Inspired by her father who could not read, Dolly Parton started the Imagination Library within her home county in 1995.  This is a book gifting program that mails free books monthly to children from birth to age 5 in participating communities.  The program was designed to encourage families to spend time reading to children.  Statistics show that reading to children at a young age positively aids in early language and vocabulary development.  Today, this program spans four countries and mails over 1 million free books each month to children around the world.  The 150 millionth book was mailed in 2020!

On October 12, 2021, Kingman Elks and Soroptimist International of Kingman donated approximately 61 Imagination Library books to the Venture Club for their Little Libraries
program.  These books will continue to enrich the lives of children in our community.  As Dolly says, “You can never get enough books into the hands of enough children.” Pictured above are (left to right) Venture members Bobbi Prestia, Jackie Morris (Elks), Jamie Taylor (Venture Club President), Linda Miller (Soroptimist), Colleen Kirby (Soroptimist), Debbie Liverence, Sharon Stockbridge, Morgan Wilson, Nani Chrimes (Elks). Seated are Venture members Edith Byrne and Barbara Banks.

Sponsors are needed to keep this program going. Please send your donation to SIK Imagination Library, P. O. Box 3393, Kingman, AZ 86402-3393, or go to SIKingman.com and donate online.

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