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This Father’s Day, INTEGRIS Health Children’s is happy to announce their partnership with the Metropolitan Library System of Oklahoma County and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

Inspired by her father’s inability to read and write Dolly started Imagination Library in her home state of Tennessee in 1995, in hopes of fostering a genuine love of reading in children. The program now spans five countries and gifts over 2 million free books each month to children around the world.

”We are thrilled to help further Dolly Parton’s reach so that even more children can experience the many benefits of reading,” says Vibitha Mani, M.D., with INTEGRIS Health Children’s. ”Research shows reading to a child from infancy supports cognitive development, improves language skills and better prepares them for academic success.”

Starting today, all babies born at a metro INTEGRIS Health facility will be given information on how to enroll in the program. ”Each new baby who lives in an eligible county will receive a high-quality, age-appropriate book mailed to their home every month until their fifth birthday,” explains Certified Child Life Specialist Erica Liddell. ”But the best part of the program is that it is available at no cost to the families!”

Imagination Library is funded through Dolly Parton herself and local community partners, like the Metropolitan Library System of Oklahoma County.

”Reading to a child at such an early age nurtures imagination and creativity. It also helps cultivate a special bond with the child,” says Heather Zeoli with the Metropolitan Library System. ”Anyone can read to a child; parents, older siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, even friends.”

INTEGRIS Health estimates they will enroll more than 550 new babies into the Imagination Library program each month from their labor and delivery units alone. Registration opportunities will also be given to young children in certain pediatrician and primary care offices throughout the health care system.