The world will remember Dolly Parton for her unmistakable voice, songwriting, wit and ability to connect across generations.
Here in Southern Arizona, thousands of families will remember her as the reason their children opened the mailbox to find books addressed to them.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library began in 1995 with a personal idea. Inspired by her father, who could not read or write, Parton wanted children in her hometown to grow up with books. What began in one community became a global book-gifting program.
Today, the program has provided more than 300 million books worldwide. Each month, more than 3 million books are mailed directly to children from birth through age 5 at no cost to their families.
Parton once said, “My dream has always been to help children love books and love learning, no matter where they live.”
People are also reading…
That dream reached Southern Arizona because an idea was paired with a network capable of bringing it to life locally.
Since 2012, United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona has led efforts to implement and manage Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library across our region, enabling approximately 15,000 Southern Arizona children to receive books of their own.
Local supporters, including Freeport-McMoRan, The Diamond Family Foundation and Read On Arizona have provided additional resources over the years that strengthened the program and extended its reach.
Last year alone, 2,532 children received 23,379 books across Southern Arizona, reaching families in urban, rural and tribal communities.
The impact extends far beyond the books delivered. Reading with young children supports brain development, strengthens family relationships and builds skills foundational to school readiness and lifelong learning, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Those books represent bedtime stories, time shared between children and adults, growing home libraries and young people entering school with a stronger foundation for success.
An international study of more than 86,000 caregivers found that children receiving Imagination Library books were more likely to demonstrate stronger early-literacy skills and participate in shared reading, with the greatest benefits in communities facing the highest barriers to opportunity.
Dolly Parton deserves full credit for the vision, generosity and enduring commitment behind this remarkable program. United Way’s role has been different, but essential: helping that vision travel the final mile into our community.
A person, family, foundation or business may have a powerful idea and resources to support it. But turning that idea into measurable, lasting impact across a region requires local knowledge, trusted relationships, operational capacity and the ability to unite partners around a shared goal.
That is the role United Way is uniquely built to play.
For more than a century, United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona has connected generosity with community need across this region. We bring together donors, businesses, nonprofits, public agencies and residents. We understand where gaps exist, which solutions are working and how resources can reach more people effectively.
Sometimes that means helping a visionary program like the Imagination Library grow locally. In other cases, it means investing in proven partners, coordinating a regional response or directing flexible resources toward urgent needs and emerging opportunities.
The common thread is leverage. An investment in United Way of Tucson benefits from relationships, community expertise and infrastructure built over decades. That allows generosity to travel farther, reach more people and produce stronger results than one donor or organization may achieve independently.
Dolly Parton had extraordinary fame and wealth, but her philanthropic legacy was defined by what she chose to do with them and her willingness to build partnerships that could carry her vision far beyond her community.
Her example invites each of us to consider the difference we want to make.
You don’t need Dolly Parton’s resources to create meaningful change. You may have an idea, a cause you care about, a connection to offer or a gift to make. United Way can help translate that generosity into action where it can do the most good.
Dolly gave us music the world will continue to sing. She also gave millions of children their first books and showed us what’s possible when generosity is paired with a network capable of bringing a bold idea to scale.
