Sandy Parker’s love of books will live on through the Chatham Kiwanis Club’s dedication to child literacy.
Parker, of Brantford, passed away recently at age 67, but her sister, local Kiwanian Cathy Telfer, is connecting Parker’s legacy to the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL).
The program is intended for children from birth until their fifth birthday. Once children are registered, an age-appropriate hardcover book will be mailed to them every month at no cost to the family.
Telfer said her sister loved to read, and did so a great deal due to her health issues.
“Because my sister was in ill health, she spent a lot of time reading. We used to share books all the time,” she said of Parker. “Every time we went anywhere, we would both take a book. One of us would finish one we liked and then share it with the other.”
Telfer said Parker thought DPIL was a great concept. Telfer agrees.
“It’s a wonderful program. As a retired teacher, it’s even more special to me,” she said.
As Telfer was settling her sister’s estate, she got the idea to support the imagination library in Parker’s name.
“It just came to me that what an idea to honour her memory and continue our commitment to Dolly Parton,” she said.
From now until the end of the year, Telfer will match donations to the DPIL program in Chatham-Kent.
“We could have just made a straight-up donation. But this is a good way to help get the community more involved,” Telfer said.
She has pledged to match up to $5,000 in donations.
To date, the Kiwanis Club of Chatham has reached about 400 children in the municipality with the DPIL program.
“We (Kiwanis Club of Chatham) have become quite devoted to the DPIL. We’ve been fortunate to get grants from the C-K Community Foundation and South Kent Wind Fund and from the 100 Women Who Care. But we’ve been adding children as we get those grants and we have a commitment to sustain the children we have,” Telfer said.
The 400 kids in the local element of DPIL come from 20 different communities in the municipality. But there’s room to grow.
“We’ve got about 5,000 children in Chatham-Kent between the ages of birth to five, which is the age range for DPIL. We can’t continue to grow at a rapid pace, but we certainly have room for a few more,” Telfer said.
The Kiwanis Club of Chatham has taken on children’s literacy as a specific focus of choice, Telfer said. Hence partnering with DPIL.
About 40 per cent of the hardcover books sent out by the Imagination Library are either written by Canadian authors, have images from Canadian illustrators, or are from Canadian publishers.
The books sent out to the children are age appropriate.
These books are free to families but cost approximately $45 per year which is covered by the Kiwanis Club.
Those who wish to support this project can double the impact with this matching donation opportunity. Donations can be made directly to the Dollywood Foundation online at https://donate2dpil.chathamkiwanis.com or by cheque to The Dollywood Foundation of Canada, P.O. Box 24022 King George, Brantford, ON N3R 7X3. People are asked to dedicate their donation in memory of Sandy Parker and include their e-mail address to receive a tax receipt.
The Kiwanis Club of Chatham-Kent is a volunteer organization dedicated to serving the children of the world.
