ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont County is embracing the cause of children’s literacy, with almost 40 percent of children from birth to 5 years old participating in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

Ohio first lady Fran DeWine appeared via Zoom at Tuesday’s Noon Rotary lunch and thanked the members for a $4,000 donation to the library program through a Rotary district grant. Participating children receive a book each month until they are 5 years old. A child who begins the program at birth can have a “library” of 60 books before beginning school.

Debbie Stanton, program officer with the Community Foundation for the Ohio Valley which is partnering with Gov. Mike DeWine’s office to bring the program to the area, lauded Belmont County’s participation.

“We have a fund at the foundation that supports the Imagination Library program for Belmont County,” Stanton said. “This program launched in Belmont County — the Imagination Library program – in March of 2020 during the pandemic. Fran DeWine took this on as an initiative to make these books available to everybody in the state of Ohio.”

She added that the DeWines have pushed to make the program available to every child in the state.

Stanton noted the importance of grassroots community investment in such projects, since an increase in participation will be recognized with an increase in funding the next month.

“The governor’s office has an initiative right now where if we show we have increased enrollment in this program for children in Belmont County, they will support this program for Belmont County 100 percent for March. Getting the enrollment forms out there in the hands of the educators, the children, is really important to make that happen,” Stanton said.

“We are hovering at about 39 percent of enrollment (of) eligible kids in Belmont County. We would love to get to 50 percent enrollment of all eligible kids in Belmont County ages zero to 5,” she said.

Stanton did not have the number of necessary child participants at hand, but she said the level of participation is particularly impressive since enrollment began during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Your donation makes a huge difference,” Fran DeWine said, adding that since a child’s brain is 80 percent developed by the age of 3, early literacy is of paramount importance. “Just having books in the home makes a big difference.”

She shared anecdotes of children’s excitement about reading and the resulting improvements in kindergarten readiness. She also mentioned the social aspect of participation, noting that young children enjoy receiving the same books as their friends and talking about them.

She added that every dollar raised is matched by the state.

“They only have to raise half the money,” DeWine said.

DeWine said the age-appropriate book deliveries all begin with “The Little Engine That Could.” She also congratulated Belmont County, saying the high percentage of enrollment compares with the statewide average of 43 percent.

Rotary President A.J. Smith said the club decided to participate in Imagination Library this year in lieu of the normal yearly literacy project of providing dictionaries for the county’s third-graders.

Doug Walsh, director of the St. Clairsville District Library, said local promoters of the program include volunteers from Women Infants and Children and the Department of Job and Family Services. Walsh said about 1,500 Belmont County children are currently enrolled.

“It’s wonderful that the St. Clairsville Rotary is supporting the Imagination Library and taking that on as their main education initiative. It supports the entire county of children throughout Belmont County,” he said. “It’s great that this one club could have such an impact on all the children of the county under 5. I’m really confident that we can pull up the enrollment. I’d say we’ve gone up 50 children in the last couple of weeks, mostly through social media and visiting preschools,” Walsh said, adding that many parents still have not heard of the program. “We’re still trying to get the word out to the parents. All the libraries in the county are involved.”

He said volunteers would continue to reach out to birth centers and hospitals, along with libraries. And Walsh said librarians have seen results, as many young children eagerly await the delivery of their newest book.

“I hear from the parents all the time how exciting that is for the children,” he said. “How children want to be read that book frequently, and how they have older siblings reading that book over and over again. … We give out 1,500 books every single month, so to keep this program going, we’ll need to find good sources of funding. … It takes $25 a year for a child, but there is no financial requirement or expectation for the family, so every child can be enrolled free.”