New Glarus Caring for Kids will take part in the first Give Like Dolly Day on Friday, Sept. 25, joining local partners around the world in a fundraising effort supporting Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and other organizations that serve children.

The Dollywood Foundation announced the new annual observance Sept. 14. The date — 9/25 — is a nod to Parton’s “9 to 5,” while the campaign is intended to turn attention toward the local organizations that make the Imagination Library possible in individual communities.

The mission behind this year’s event carries added significance, coming just one month after Parton’s death Aug. 25 at age 80. Her Imagination Library, launched in 1995, grew from a program serving children in her home county in Tennessee into an international early-literacy effort. Give Like Dolly Day now offers local partners such as Caring for Kids an opportunity to continue that work in the communities where the program reaches children directly.

For New Glarus, that means the work continues much as it did during Parton’s lifetime: local supporters help make it possible for children from birth to age 5 to find a new book waiting in their mailbox every month. While Parton’s death changed the meaning attached to her name and legacy, it did not change the basic mission behind the program.

In New Glarus, Caring for Kids is helping carry that mission forward. As the community’s local Imagination Library partner, the organization helps make it possible for enrolled children from birth to age 5 to receive a free, age-appropriate book mailed directly to their home each month — continuing a program that became one of the defining parts of Parton’s legacy. 

“The New Glarus Caring for Kids organization is the local partner organization of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and will be participating in Give Like Dolly Day to raise funds for the work they do,” said Anthony Edge, New Glarus 5th grade teacher and president of Caring for Kids.