Wheatland Electric Cooperative Inc. (WEC) announced on Tuesday that United Way of Central Kansas (UWCK) has been awarded a $2,500 grant from the WEC Sharing Success Fund to support Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Great Bend.
UWCK serves Barton and Pawnee Counties by focusing on youth opportunity, financial stability, health, and community resiliency. By bringing together donors, volunteers, and local partners, UWCK addresses pressing needs and creates lasting impact for families.
Through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, 487 children in Great Bend ranging in age from birth to 5 years old ages receive one high-quality, age-appropriate book mailed directly to their home each month at no cost to their families. These early years are critical for brain development, and consistent access to books helps children build vocabulary, comprehension, and a lifelong love of reading.
The impact of the program is supported by research. A newly released international study, the largest ever conducted on shared book reading, found that children enrolled in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in the United States were 11 times more likely to be interested in books, 15 times more likely to actively participate during shared reading, and nine times more likely to initiate shared reading.
For Great Bend, this means nearly 500 young children are strengthening foundational literacy skills before kindergarten, improving school readiness, and building a pathway toward long-term academic success. Investing in early literacy strengthens individual families while supporting the future workforce and vitality of the entire community.
The Sharing Success grant will help sustain the program locally, ensuring books continue arriving in children’s mailboxes each month. Community members who wish to support Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Great Bend can do so through UWCK, where a gift of only $30 sponsors one child for an entire year and provides 12 books during the most critical years of development.
The Scott Community Foundation began formally accepting applications for grants from the WEC Sharing Success Fund from community-based organizations on December 1, 2012. Since then, the application process has been moved internally and is currently handled directly by WEC. This year, WEC and CoBank have each contributed $15,000 to the fund. The program will continue to run until the funds are exhausted. Since 2012, WEC’s Sharing Success Fund has made $225,000 available to community-based organizations and projects across their service territory.
Community based organizations interested in receiving funding from the WEC Sharing Success Fund can apply online at https://www.weci.net/sharing-success-program. Questions should be referred to Alli Conine, director of member services & corporate communications, at 620-874-4563 or aconine@weci.net.
