By Casey Neill
DOLLY Parton is making her mark on Noble Park.
On a recent trip to Australia, the international country music star announced her Imagination Library was spreading to the suburb following a successful pilot in Doveton and Eumemmerring last year.
The program encourages parents to read to their children to improve literacy in disadvantaged communities.
So every month until they turn five, 101 children in Noble Park will receive a free book in their letterbox thanks to the Rotary Club of Noble Park.
Spokesman John Williams said the club paid $6 for each book from Penguin Books, or $72 per child a year.
“We believe in it. We think it’s a fantastic project,” he said.
“People have come back saying their children are looking forward to their next book.”
Maternal and child health nurses at Paddy O’Donoghue Centre in Noble Park selected the participants, and Mission Australia and City of Greater Dandenong provided financial support.
“We’re getting a bit of interest in the program and we’d like to expand it at a later time – when we can afford to sponsor all those kids,” Mr Williams said.
“We’d like to include all the kids in the City of Greater Dandenong, but it’s logistically not possible unless we can get some other organisations supporting it.”
Doveton College principal Bretton New said the program had made a significant impact in Doveton and Eumemmerring.
“Kids and their families, through no fault of their own, can be in economic trouble and books aren’t a priority,” he said.
Mr New said some toddlers would now read close to 60 books by the time they start school.
“It gives kids the ability to use their imagination and develop language,” he said.
South Eastern Metropolitan Region MP Gordon Rich-Phillips said the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) identified the Victorian communities involved in the Imagination Library as places where children could be three times more likely to struggle with reading.
“Reading is a child’s passport to knowledge and opportunity – the sooner we can build a child’s literacy skills, the sooner they can broaden their understanding of the world,” he said.
Children and Early Childhood Development Minister Wendy Lovell said reading every day when children were developing fastest made a very real difference to how they succeeded at school.
“It has the effect of placing these children up to 12 months ahead of children who are not read to every day,” she said.
Email jkwilliams24@optusnet.com.au to support Rotary Club of Noble Park.
