Draper families with children under five can sign up to receive a free book every month through Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

Canyons School District and the Canyons Education Foundation announced the partnership Friday, Sept. 25, at Glacier Hills Elementary, where preschool-aged children and their caregivers gathered in the library for stories before receiving their first books.

The program mails one age-appropriate book each month to registered children from birth until their fifth birthday. A child enrolled at birth would collect 60 books by age five. There is no cost to families.

Canyons is the largest school district in Utah to offer the program districtwide, according to Canyons Education Foundation President Quinn Sperry.

"Imagine going to the mailbox to find a package with your name on it. You open it, and inside is a book that's yours to keep … Imagine the family conversations those books will spark," Sperry said at the event.

Superintendent McKay Robinson said the effort targets literacy before kindergarten. He said the district is reaching children before they enroll and helping families build a foundation for reading from birth.

The program is funded through donations to the Canyons Education Foundation, the district's nonprofit fundraising arm, in partnership with Utah-based Operation Literacy. The Foundation held roughly $3.1 million in total assets as of a June 2 board update. Sperry said the Foundation is committed to raising the funds needed to sustain the program.

The late Dolly Parton launched the Imagination Library in 1995 as a tribute to her father, who never learned to read or write. The program has grown over 31 years, reaching more than 3 million children worldwide, according to the district.

The launch comes as Canyons works to meet state literacy goals. A Sept. 1 board meeting identified satisfying the requirements of Senate Bill 241 (SB241), which sets a goal for all third-graders to read at grade level by 2030, as a priority. KUTV reported Aug. 25 that roughly 69% of Utah children read below grade level by third grade, though the underlying dataset was not named.

Families in Draper, Cottonwood Heights, Midvale, Sandy, Alta, Brighton and White City can register at imaginationlibrary.com/check-availability, according to the district.

Upcoming

• Friday, Oct. 2 — Gov. Cox's statewide read-a-thon. Canyons District is participating.