Little books for little hands

Program provides free books to preschool students

At the age of 3, Sandy’s Rosie Normand already has a sizable book collection. And at this rate, her shelf will only continue to get more stock.

When Rosie’s 6-year-old brother, Hayden, was her age, their mother, Kimberly, signed him up for Oregon Trail Education Foundation’s Imagination Library — a free program that sends books to children every month in the years before they begin kindergarten. Even though she was a couple years younger than Hayden, Rosie was enrolled in the program and also started receiving books.

Kindergarten-aged Hayden has graduated from the program, but Rosie continues to receive books. For her November selection, she received “Peanut Butter and Cupcake,” a book specially chosen for her age group.

“It’s been her favorite book,” Kimberly said.

The Oregon Trail Education Foundation started the program in February 2014.

“They say that a child’s brain develops the most in their first three years,” said Pat Saunders, a member of the foundation’s board and Imagination Library coordinator for the district. “Their reading ability in third grade will determine how well they do in high school, so that’s why we need to reach these kids early.”

The foundation, which started the program in February 2014, is run through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Founded by the legendary singer, songwriter and humanitarian in 1995, the foundation reaches 1,700 communities across the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom. The Oregon Trail Education Foundation first looked at whether they could provide a similar program independently, but at $28 per child each year, the program, which mails 12 “high-quality books” to each child for that price, was the most economical option.

“There is no way we could have set up a program as a foundation at that price,” said Julia Monteith, communications director for the Oregon Trail School District. “This really aligns to the district’s focus on bringing in that preschool piece — getting kids reading early.”

Monteith said there are approximately 1,500 children in the district who would be eligible to access the program. Of those, the program currently serves 229.

The foundation’s Imagination Library has sent out 4,410 books since its beginning, 2566 of them in 2015 alone, and has seen 144 students graduate from the program into kindergarten. The program’s youngest enrolled child was born in October.

In all, the program costs the foundation about $6,000 a year at the current number of kids enrolled — a number that is always increasing. The foundation, which receives donations from Sandy Kiwanis as well as through Fred Meyer’s Community Rewards program, recently received a $5,000 donation from the Sandy-based Starseed Foundation nonprofit organization.

Reading and rhyming

Renee Noble’s 2-year-old daughter Alison has received books from the program for about a year. The Boring-based family learned about Imagination Library when Saunders visited a toddler story-time event at Sandy Library.

“I think there’s a lot of parents that aren’t aware that the Oregon Trail School District has this program,” Renee said. “You really don’t know about it until you have a kid in school. I’m really glad that we were informed about it.”

Alison has received about 10 books so far, and among them, she’s discovered her favorites.

Renee said Alison loves the “Llama Llama” series of books, which have a rhyming component. Alison has started memorizing her favorite book and is able to finish many sentences with the word she knows fits.

“Early literacy is really important, and taking the time each day to read with her is a goal of mine,” Renee said. “It’s exciting for her to get new books.”

The first book a child receives is “The Little Engine that Could.” After that they get a book specially chosen for their age group each month until they graduate, culminating with “Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!” Each book is shipped to the family’s house each month addressed to the child enrolled.

“The biggest thrill for the child is they get a piece of mail,” Saunders said.

Although Saunders would love to see the program grow, the Oregon Trail Education Foundation is looking for a way to sustainably fund the program.

“What we really want to do is at some point go out to those families with brand new babies (to have them join the program),” Monteith said. “But our hands are tied financially.”

For now, the foundation has a committee working to organization a phone-a-thon in February, similar to the one Gresham-Barlow school district holds in honor of literacy each year.

“We’re hoping the community will get on board with supporting it,” Monteith added. “We need to get to a point where we’re comfortable supporting the program before we go out to recruit families.”

Kimberly said one of her favorite aspects of the program is there are questions and ideas on the back of the books to help parents engage their children in reading.

Over the years, she has seen Hayden’s reading skills enhanced by an early-instilled daily reading routine and the sheer amount of books he was exposed to.

“He’s able to start reading the books Rosie is getting,” Kimberly added. “He’s able to practice his reading skills now that we have this huge library to work from.”

Between them, Rosie and Hayden have collected almost 30 books.

“We definitely do have quite the collection,” Kimberly said with a laugh.

Imagine your child’s library

For more information about this local program, visit oregontrailschools.com/about-us/oregon-trail-community/otef/ and click on “Imagination Library.”

kwray@sandypost.com