Donation awarded to purchase books for local children
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BELPRE -- Courtney Wentz, communications and marketing director, Marietta Community Foundation, received $2,525 from Peoples Bank Foundation at the April 19 Belpre Rotary Club meeting to apply to the cost of books for 101 Washington County children under the age of 5.
The donation depletes the waiting list of children registering for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library (DPIL).
The club and the two foundations partnered to provide registered children a new book monthly, encouraging reading as a foundation for education in their lives, Wentz explained.
Making the presentation on behalf of Peoples Bank Foundation was Aimee Seabolt, branch manager of the Belpre branch of the bank and herself a Belpre Rotarian. Seabolt applauded the partnership that occurred during a club meeting through the action of the club and the presence of Kevin Eagan, chief marketing officer at Peoples Bank Foundation, at the meeting as speaker.
Wentz described the work of the Marietta Community Foundation as a local affiliate, taking care of the remainder of the cost of the funding through donations after an initial portion is provided through DPIL.
The program "gives children a good foundation in life. The foundation for all education is reading," she said.
Marietta Community Foundation registers the children, seeing that local donations are added to funding coming from DPIL, making the mail delivery of books possible, she explained.
Previously, Belpre Rotarian Linda Robinson brought the DPIL program to the attention of the club, describing the wait list in Washington County.
Club members unanimously voted to contribute a weekly collection to fund the removal of some children from the wait list. Kevin Eagen, chief marketing officer at Peoples Bank Foundation, was present at that meeting, and subsequently made the major donation possible to deplete the total current wait list of children.
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is dedicated to inspiring a love of reading by gifting books free of charge to children from birth to age five, through funding shared by Dolly Parton and local community partners in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Republic of Ireland.