Beebe babies to get Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library titles

Beebe Healthcare and Lewes Public Library are partnering to ensure that all babies born at Beebe Healthcare in Lewes are registered for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

The families will be presented with the first Imagination Library book before discharge from the hospital. The first baby to receive the book at Beebe Healthcare is Spencer Robert Heslep, son of Stephanie Clavijo and Robert Heslep.

“Beebe Healthcare is proud to be the first healthcare system in the First State to provide the first book to babies born at our Margaret H. Rollins Lewes Campus,” said Tom Protack, president of Beebe Medical Foundation. “Studies show that early childhood literacy can be tied to better health and wellness later in life, and our donors want to support Beebe Healthcare in this effort.”

In August, Gov. John Carney announced the statewide expansion of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library through Delaware’s public libraries. Children whose parents enroll them with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library receive one new book in the mail each month from birth until the child’s fifth birthday, at no cost to the family, creating a personal library of as many as 60 books that can help form the foundation of a child’s early reading experience. For more information or to register, go to lib.de.us/imagination/. Books are selected by a national panel of early childhood literacy experts who review hundreds of children’s books each year and choose those that best fit children’s needs as they learn and grow.

“A healthy reading habit motivates, inspires and encourages creativity among children and adults alike,” said Carney. “One of the most important things we can do to improve childhood literacy is to give our children access to books, especially during this challenging time. The Imagination Library program is also an important component of the First Chance Delaware initiative for children, led by First Lady Tracey Quillen Carney. The mission of First Chance Delaware includes promoting learning readiness through literacy and parent-child engagement. Thank you to Beebe Healthcare, Lewes Public Library and all of our partners for your work on this important effort to improve literacy in our state.”

This new hospital initiative is a team effort. The imagination library is offered internationally through the Dollywood Foundation and is managed for Delaware by the Division of Libraries. Beebe pediatricians and nurses advocate and facilitate registration for the program with new parents. Beebe Medical Foundation provides the first book and welcome bags. Lewes Public Library registers the newborns in the imagination library database.

“Amazing things can happen when community partnerships come together. We’re so proud to offer this service to all of the Beebe Babies. Thank you to the donors who made this possible, along with the Beebe care team that will be delivering the first books, and to the library staff who will make sure these newborns receive the Imagination Library books each month for five years,” said Dr. David A. Tam, Beebe Healthcare president and CEO.

“It’s a natural fit for libraries to facilitate Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. After all, early literacy is one of our core missions,” said Jennifer Noonan, children’s librarian at Lewes Public Library, who first initiated the Imagination Library initiative in the Cape Henlopen School District in 2018. “Getting books into the hands of children and their families is of crucial importance, and the earlier we can do it, the better.”

According to literacy statistics compiled by Begin to Read, two-thirds of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of the fourth grade will end up in jail or on welfare. Improving people’s literacy reduces their chances of dropping out of school, being incarcerated, experiencing teenage pregnancy and living in poverty.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends caregivers read to their children from birth because the more words babies hear, the better their literacy, vocabulary, and reading comprehension will be in the future.