About Us

Our Story

Imagination Library of Montgomery County, Maryland, was founded by Susan & Peter Greif and Debbie Pollak in May of 2015. They share a love of books and reading, and wanted to share that passion with young children.

We have 2,446 children enrolled, and more than 2,463 have graduated. Since our start in 2015, we have distributed more than 100,000 books.

We hope to grow the number of coverage areas as fundraising continues (as we must raise all the funds needed to pay for the books mailed to the children in our program).

History of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library was started by Dolly in her home state of Tennessee in 1995. She felt that the seeds of children’s dreams could often be found in books. She was further inspired by her own beloved father who could not read or write.

Dolly developed a program so that every preschooler in Sevier County, TN would receive their own books on a regular basis. It quickly expanded throughout Tennessee, and many communities asked if the program could be replicated in their states. Imagination Library was then offered to any community that would support a local affiliate. Imagination Library of Montgomery County, Maryland was born, and the first children were registered in May 2015.

Today, there are over 1,800 affiliates like ours in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Australia and the Republic of Ireland. Over 1.7 million books are mailed out every month, and over 233 million books have been distributed over the years! The 100,000,000th book was presented by Dolly to Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in 2018.

Learn more at the Imagination Library national website.

It’s no wonder that Dolly is proud to be called The Book Lady. She remains committed to the idea that books can help children “Dream More, Learn More, Care More and Be More.”

Board of Directors

Amy Beal, Montgomery County Public Schools

Arianna Ross, Story Tapestries

Carole Klein, Board Member, Imagination Library of Montgomery County, MD

Daman Harris, Anne Arundel Public Schools

Debbie Pollak, Founder, Imagination Library of Montgomery County, MD

Joan Schaffer, Board Member, Imagination Library of Montgomery County, MD

Kimberly Rusnak, Children’s Opportunity Alliance

Margot Krauss, Imagination Library of Montgomery County, MD

Mindy Chong, PEP-Parent Encouragement Program

Patricia Ruppert, Ruppert Family Foundation

Peter Greif, Founder, Imagination Library of Montgomery County, MD

Susan Greif, Founder, Imagination Library of Montgomery County, MD

Coordinator

Carol da Silva, carol.dasilva@imaginationlibrarymcmd.org

Our Donors

We are grateful to the following organizations and individuals for their generous support.

We also thank the many anonymous supporters who have donated to our affiliate through the national website for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

Freddie Mac Employee Matching Program

The Children's Opportunity Fund (a component fund of the Greater Washington Community Foundation)

The Junior League of Washington

The Kay Family Foundation

Montgomery County Circuit Court Charity Campaign

Montgomery County Council

Office of the Montgomery County, MD Executive

PNC Grow Up Great Program
Provided supplies for 2020 Parent Survey

St. Paul's United Methodist Church of Kensington, MD

The Robert & Maureen Sievers Family Charitable Gift Fund
(in memory of Maureen Sievers)

Debbie Banscomb & Rick Johnson

Phyllis Castle

Joanne Colt & Tom Haslinger

Carolyn Flury

Jay Goldman & Rebecca Salon

Susan & Peter Greif

Gail Owen Hoelscher

Julie & Bruce Hunter

Veena Kapur

Marc Korman

Ellen and Jim Myerburg

Julie, Eric & Bradford Palakovich Carr

Richard & Debbie Pollak

Joan Schaffer

Barbara Tarmy

Katherine & Jonathan Tomares

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