Clarke’s Beach councillor hoping Town will chip in on Imagination Library

By Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Olivia Bradbury

The late Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which provides free books to young children, may soon be available to residents of Clarke’s Beach.

If it happens, it will be thanks to councillor Keegan Healey, who told his colleagues at their October 6 public meeting how he had contacted the Imagination Library and it had responded by e-mail.

“At its heart, the Imagination Library is about something simple but powerful: placing a beautiful, age-appropriate book in a child’s hands every month from birth to age five, completely free to families,” Healey said, reading from the e-mail. “Each book arrives addressed personally to the child to help them to build a sense of pride, routine, and a lifelong love of reading. What makes this program so special is that it is community-driven. We partner with local organizations like yours to bring the program to life while we handle the logistics.”

The email went on to list the program’s benefits, including building literacy and school-readiness from birth, strengthening parent-child bonds through shared reading, removing barriers by ensuring every child has access to books at home, and creating a visible, meaningful way to support families locally.

The Imagination Library mails out over three million books across five countries every month. It has delivered over 305 million books worldwide since the program was launched. Over 60,000 Canadian children receive books from the Imagination Library every month. The books have a strong Canadian focus, with most of them by Canadian authors and illustrators.

To start the program in a community, the Imagination Library needs a local funding partner, Healey said. In this case, it would be the Town of Clarke’s Beach. The cost is $3.85 per child per month. The Imagination Library would handle book selection, ordering, mailing, and ongoing support.

“I think it’s a lovely idea,” said Healey, adding the Town would need to find out how many local families would like to sign up for the program, and how many children would enrol.

Mayor Danielle Bussey suggested that perhaps, after Clarke’s Beach families register for the program, the Imagination Library will let the Town know how many children they would be supporting. She agreed that getting the program is a nice idea.

Healey said he doesn’t think any other communities in the area have partnered with the Imagination Library.

Bussey said she had looked into it when her children were younger, but the program was not available in Canada at that time.

“I think St. John’s maybe was the closest it got to us,” said Bussey.

Healey said he would arrange a meeting with the Imagination Library and made a motion to that effect. It was seconded by councillor Jim Giles and carried unanimously.