International Visionary Award Recipient

Dolly Parton and the Dollywood Foundation
www.dollysimagvinationlibrary.com

ARS, Inc. is honored to present Ms. Parton and her Dollywood Foundation with the 2008 International Visionary Award for her outstanding achievement in fostering and enhancing educational pursuits in young people and/or people with disabilities as well as a deep commitment and generosity to creating resources on a local, state, national or international level that allow and encourage individuals to achieve their fullest potential, and to live life to the highest degree possible.    

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a way for children everywhere to receive their own books without regard to demographics. Currently, over 400,000 children in 700 communities across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom benefit from this program. In addition to the individual book donations, the Imagination Library is working to give libraries and schools complete book sets.

"The main goal is to inspire a love of reading at an early age," said David Dotson, Executive Director for the Imagination Library. "Dolly’s not a teacher, but she tends to inspire, and getting people to love to read is different than teaching someone to read."