LIVE PREMIERE OF DOLLY PARTON’S THE LIBRARY THAT DOLLY BUILT

Celebrating the People Who Made Dolly’s Dreams Come True

EXCLUSIVELY VIA FACEBOOK LIVE

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2020

IN CONVERSATION WITH, AND ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCE BY, PARTON

DURING THIS FREE ONE-NIGHT-ONLY LIVESTREAM EVENT

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Celebrates 25^th Anniversary with

150 Millionth Book

FORT ST, JOHN, BC:  – The Fort St. John Literacy Society and The Dollywood Foundation are presenting a free one-night-only live streaming world premiere event for The Library That Dolly Built, a behind-the-scenes look at Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Originally scheduled as a nationwide live event on more than 300 screens this spring, the world premiere for The Library That Dolly Built has been reimagined as a free live stream screening of the film, exclusively on Facebook, available nationally on Wednesday, December 9^th at 7pm EST. The screening will be followed by a conversation with, and live acoustic performance, by Dolly Parton.  Viewers can tune into the live screening and conversation on  www.facebook.com/fsjliteracy/dollysimaginationlibrary and ImaginationLibrary.com.  In addition, the European premiere will be Thursday, December 10^th at 7pm GMT, and the Australian premiere will be Friday, December 11^th at 7pm AEDT.

Parton created the Imagination Library to inspire a love for books and reading amongst the nation’s preschool children.  Since inception in 1995, the Imagination Library has grown into a global endeavor and recently hit a new milestone, gifting its 150 millionth book.  The Imagination Library is currently gifting books to 1.7 million children around the world each month.

Dolly Parton said, “I am so excited that we can finally tell the whole story of the Imagination Library. It is certainly not just about me. Our story is the story of children, of families and communities who all share the dream to inspire kids to love to read and to love to learn. My hope is this documentary will encourage more towns, more states and even more countries to jump onboard. One thing is for sure, I think this is the best investment I have ever made!”

Jessica Kalman, Executive Director of the Fort St. John Literacy Society stated, “We are thrilled to be offering this program to our community, and extremely thankful to all of the sponsors and donors who have allowed us to distribute over 18,000 books to date.”

 The Library That Dolly Built, directed and produced by journalism professor and director of Land Grant Films Nick Geidner, and narrated by Danica McKellar, goes behind the scenes of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, to show how one of the most famous and beloved performers in the world has partnered with thousands of local community organizations to develop an efficient and effective program for spreading the love of reading. Imagination Library started as a gift for the children in Dolly’s hometown, Sevierville, Tennessee, and is now active in all 50 states, and 5 countries, gifting 1.7 million free, age-appropriate books to children every month. The film also provides a glimpse of the profound impact the Imagination Library has on the people through original interviews with authors, policymakers, Imagination Library staff, recipients, and the legend herself, Dolly Parton. Woven throughout the film is a biographical sketch of Dolly Parton, featuring rare photos and films from her childhood. Unlike most biographies of Dolly, it doesn’t focus on her music. Instead, it demonstrates that at every point in her career, any time she has had success, Dolly Parton has come back to Sevierville to give back to her people.

For more information, please visit www.imaginationlibrary.com/film

 About Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
Since launching in 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has become the preeminent early childhood book gifting program in the world. The flagship program of The Dollywood Foundation has gifted well over 140 million free books in Australia, Canada, The Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom and the United States. The Imagination Library mails more than 1.7 million high-quality, age-appropriate books each month to registered children from birth to age five. Dolly envisioned creating a lifelong love of reading, inspiring them to dream. The impact of the program has been widely researched and results suggest positive increases in key early childhood literacy metrics. Penguin Random House is the exclusive publisher for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library across Canada. For more information, please visit imaginationlibrary.com.