Xi State Shines at International Regional Conferences
Delta Kappa Gamma Sisters listening to a presentation about Imagination Library!
The Xi State Literacy Committee has accomplished a major goal this summer as Committee Chair Mildred Welch, Alpha Iota, traveled to all five regional conferences to present “Tennessee’s Answer to Early Literacy—The Dolly Parton Imagination Library.” The workshop included information about how Xi State has partnered with The Governor’s Books from Birth to assist in Tennessee’s successful implementation of this very beneficial preschool program. Fellow literacy committee member, Judy McDonald, Alpha Rho, accompanied Mildred as workshop facilitator at the SWRC in Denver, and the SERC in Louisville. Christie Crouse, from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library joined Mildred to help present in both Louisville and Hershey, Pennsylvania. Linda Richardson, Alpha Rho, assisted Mildred as facilitator at the NERC in Hershey. From there, Mildred traveled to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, for the NWRC, and then on to Baden Baden, Germany, for the EURC. In every region, the workshop was attended by enthusiastic DKG sisters who are very much interested in the implementation of the Imagination Library in their own areas. Through our partnership in the Governors Books from Birth/Dolly Parton Imagination Library, Xi State is truly leading the way in early literacy.
Governor's Books from Birth Literacy Project
In 2006, Xi State first partnered with the Governor’s Books from Birth Foundation (GBBF) in conjunction with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library to help provide a free hardback book every month to all Tennessee children from birth to age five.
As individual Xi State chapters, our mission is to insure that the children in our respective areas are enrolled in the program so that they receive the free books, to help raise funds to purchase the books for the children in our area, and to encourage teenagers in our area to become members of the League of Extraordinary Teens. The League of Extraordinary Teens engages Tennesseans age 13-19 in the financial and logistical support of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Membership requires teens to personally register a minimum of ten children and raise a minimum of $140 to cover the cost of including those children in their county’s Imagination Library for one full year.
Xi State has become a very valuable partner in this wonderful program by sponsoring sign-ups and advertising the program via a variety of media formats from word of mouth, to newspaper ads, to radio talk shows every year during the months of September and October (as well as any other time we see a mother with a young baby). It is a win-win situation for the children, the parents, Xi State, and Tennessee, as enrolled preschoolers receive as many as 60 carefully selected, age-appropriate books FREE before they begin kindergarten. The one requirement of parents is to read the books to their children.
Your chapter’s GBBF activities make good submissions to the Xi State News. Perhaps your creative ideas can be used next year by another chapter and theirs by you. Be sure to make photos for your local newspaper and “Create a Buzz” about Delta Kappa Gamma, Xi State, and your local chapter members and those “Extraordinary Teen” volunteers. Remember to keep a count of children enrolled by your chapter for the state report in 2010.
