(From the Findlay-Hancock County Community Library)

The Findlay-Hancock County Public Library is proud to announce the full endowment of the funds supporting Hancock County’s Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program. The Imagination Library program is open to all children from birth to age five living in Hancock County. Once enrolled in the program, children receive an age-appropriate book mailed directly to their home until age five at no cost to the family.

The library celebrated this milestone as they observed the 10th Anniversary of the Imagination Library program in Hancock County this weekend. A Meeting Room was also named in honor of Mariann Dana Younger for all of her generous support of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

The State of Ohio fiscally supports 50% of the program, and local affiliates such as the library are responsible for the remaining 50% of the cost of the program. Generous contributions from private individuals, organizations, grants, and the Friends of the Library have supported the program locally since 2014. However, fundraising efforts have taken place to build a lifetime of support for the Imagination Library. The forward-thinking approach of several donors has now granted the program enduring stability. The Chuck and Mariann Younger Hancock Literacy Fund and the Hancock Literacy Fund, held at The Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation, have now been fully endowed to support the program’s current enrollment level in perpetuity.

Sarah Clevidence, Director of the Findlay-Hancock County Public Library, said of reaching the milestone, “We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of all of the donors who have supported the Imagination Library program. The Younger family and their fellow donors understand the critical roll early and frequent access to books has in the future success of children. They have given our community a life changing gift that will last for generations to come”.

The Imagination Library was originally established in Hancock County by Hancock Literacy, previously the Literacy Coalition of Hancock County, in 2014. In 2022, the Findlay-Hancock County Public Library assumed administration of the program. Since the program’s inception in 2014 in Hancock County, over 245 thousand books have been mailed to our county’s children. Currently, there are over 2,500 children in the county registered for this program.

In addition to funds designated for the Imagination Library program, the library is also supported by funds at The Community Foundation designated for general library operations, the adult literacy program Read for Life and the genealogy collection. For more information on these opportunities, please contact The Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation.