Angelica Ramos
Contributing Writer
BLACKSBURG- The Blacksburg Breakfast Lions Club celebrated becoming a founding donor of the new Montgomery County affiliate of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library on May 15, 2024.
The Blacksburg Breakfast Lions Club became a founding donor for the new Imagination Library affiliate and celebrated with a life-size cut-out of Dolly Parton. The Blacksburg Breakfast Lions Club has donated $5,000 in funding to the Imagination Library that debuted in February. Members of the Lions Club enjoyed taking a picture with “Dolly” and say they were honored to become founding donors.
“We were honored and happy to become founding donors to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Montgomery County,” Lions Club President Peter Hartmann said, “Blacksburg Breakfast Lions club strives to improve the community by supporting the wellness and success in of its youth.”
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a program that supports the passion of reading in children from ages newborn up until their fifth birthday. Once enrolled, a child will receive a personalized book in the mail every single month until they turn five. Each child’s first book from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library is The Little Engine that Could but the books differ from child to child from there as they are age-graded per what is appropriate for each child’s current age-range. This program is completely free to sign up for. Since its opening in February, the Imagination Library has enrolled more than 1,100 children in Montgomery County. The Montgomery County branch of the Imagination Library is organized through the Mt. Tabor Ruritan Club to help support and encourage reading in the children of Montgomery County.
“Thanks for the opportunity, Ruritans,” said Hartmann. “We all love Dolly.”
With the help of donors like the Blacksburg Breakfast Lions, Kiwanis, 100+ Women Who Care, and many more community organizations and businesses, The Imagination Library has been able to catapult into the community. Local businesses such as Blacksburg Books, Fringe Benefits and O’Charley’s have hosted donation days to help support this new and beneficial organization. Red Robin donated 20 percent of their receipts to the Imagination Library on May 15 as well and O’Charley’s is set to donate 15% of their receipts on May 23 in community support for this new endeavor.
“We hustled,” Wendy Baldwin, executive director, said regarding how hard her and her team have worked to bring this opportunity to the community quickly.
The Imagination Library has displays at the Lyric Theatre or at the Mt. Tabor Ruritan Club Fish Fries on every second Saturday of the month.
