Montana's First Lady Visits P.C. Library

Tuesday afternoon, a handful of people gathered at the Phillips County Library to meet and greet not only Montana's First Lady, Susan Gianforte, but an advocate for reading...Dolly Parton!

Well, at least the likeness of Miss Dolly arrived, on cardboard, folded in half, and apparently bashful as she didn't say a word during the visit.

Susan Gianforte, on the other hand was eager to share about her project, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. The program provides reading books to children from birth to one month less than their fifth birthday. The program was started in 1995, and the First Lady got involved in May of 2023.

"We have reached out to 19,000 young children in Montana, and we still have a ways to go...there are 60,000 eligible children across the state," she said. "We have reached each of the 56 counties, every zip code in the state putting the word out and putting books into the hands of young readers."

Mrs. Gianforte raises the funds for the postage to mail the books, and the books are financed through grant funding.

One extremely excited youth, who is a Dolly Parton fan, but too old for the program, is Holly Wagner, a client at the MOI Group Home. She let out a shriek-squeal that delighted Mrs. Gianforte. Her enthusiasm was overwhelming.