Photo Provided Imagination Library of Belmont County representative Debbie Stanton, left, accepting a $2,000 donation from Rotary Club of St. Clairsville President Anne Haning.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Rotary Club of St. Clairsville recently donated $2,000 to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library of Belmont County.

According to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library of Ohio, the Ohio Governor’s Imagination Library was established in 2019 and was inspired by first lady Fran DeWine’s passion to improve the lives of Ohio’s children. In November 2020, the Imagination Library was available in all 88 counties of Ohio at zero cost to families who participate.

The Imagination Library is a book gifting program offering a free book once a month until a child is 5.

“The Rotary of St. Clairsville, as part of the larger international Rotary, works very hard to raise funds through several events and activities throughout the year to then make donations to worthy nonprofits that we identify within the local area,” Rotary Club of St. Clairsville President Ann Haining said. “The Imagination Library project is part of the nationwide Dolly Parton Imagination Library, and Governor DeWine’s wife undertook this as a statewide initiative several years ago.”

Haining added that she believes the Imagination Library of Belmont County was a perfect fit for the Rotary’s values and goals of improving child literacy within the community.

She said that other issues the Rotary Club strives to improve include food insecurity and general poverty within the community of Belmont County. Before donating to the Imagination Library, the club would distribute hard copy dictionaries to different schools within Belmont County.

“It was very neat for us because we got to see these children receive these dictionaries, and they were enthused about it. But as we all know, hard copy dictionaries are a bit obsolete with our use of technology so we decided to go with the Imagination Library,” she said.

According to Haining, over 1,800 families within Belmont County are served through Imagination Library, but many more families that are eligible.

“It’s a very simple process for them to sign up online, so they’re trying to do outreach to those who don’t have this yet. We feel like by using social media and print media we can help and get the word out that if those families contact Imagination Library they can enroll very easily,” Haining said.

She added that the Rotary Club strongly and frequently supports the Food Pantry of St. Clairsville because it believes that it reaches the immediate Belmont County community.

“We’ve been a very strong supporter of them and continue to do that,” she said.

One of the upcoming fundraising events that the Rotary Club of St. Clairsville has on the horizon is the Taste of the Holidays on Nov. 7 at The Market at Ebbert Farms. The event is a way for residents to sample the best restaurants of the Ohio Valley as well as provide powerful marketing and networking tools for the local restaurants that participate. It was formerly known as Taste of the Valley, which would be held in the summer until 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic halted all plans for the event. Taste of the Holidays differs from Taste of the Valley because it is an outlet for restaurants to share holiday menu items as well as promote their holiday catering capabilities. Haining added that Taste of the Holidays is planned to be a smaller, more exclusive atmosphere this year, which she believes will allow smaller restaurants and catering companies to participate due to them having a smaller quantity of food to supply. To purchase tickets for the Taste of the Holidays, you can either contact any member of the Rotary Club of St.Clairsville or go to its Facebook page.