(WLIO) - Today is Dolly Parton Day in the state of Ohio.
Governor Mike DeWine declared August 9th to be Dolly's Day. The music icon was in Columbus to support her Imagination Library and attended a luncheon on the Ohio State campus. Imagination Library started as an idea nearly three decades ago and now provides books to children around the world. Parton began the program in Tennessee along with her dad who could not read or write until he was an adult.
"I think we know that a similar program that I started in honor of my dad, 27-years ago and actually my dad and I thought would go a county or maybe two or three counties over, we had no idea when we started this it was going to become what it has become but we are hoping by the end of this year, we are going to be over 200-million books," stated Dolly Parton.
The program provides one age-appropriate book per month until a child turns five. Ohio kids are now eligible to enroll in the free program, with over 327,743 already signed up, 45% of eligible kids under the age of five in Ohio.
