Cooperative Living April 2023 - 4

OUR COMMUNITIES
Cooperative Living
OUR MISSION
Vol. 78, No. 4 ● ISSN 1529-4579
To inform you about your cooperative and
its efforts to serve your energy needs; how to
use electricity safely and efficiently; and the
people who define and enhance the quality of
life in communities served by electric co-ops.
GREGGMACDONALD * Executive Editor
LAURAEMERY * Deputy Editor
JOHNGROTT * Creative Services Coordinator
SONJAKINNEY * Advertising Account Representative
JIMROBERTSON * Director, Marketing&BrandManagement
TOMMYCAMPBELL * Digital Producer
NINAJACOBS * Production Coordinator
Published by the Virginia, Maryland & Delaware
Association of Electric Cooperatives
WADEC. HOUSE * Chair
C.MICHAEL SANDRIDGE * Vice Chair
GEORGEN. GOIN * Secretary/Treasurer
BRIANS.MOSIER* President &CEO
Board of Directors: Christopher D. Bott, Belvin Williamson Jr., A&N;
C. Michael Sandridge, Bill Buchanan, BARC; George N. Goin,
Gary E. Wood, Central Virginia; Robert E. Arnold, Micheal E. Malandro,
Choptank; Jeannette S. Everett, Steven A. Harmon, Community;
James E. Huffman, Jeff M. Ahearn, Craig-Botetourt; Patricia S. Dorey,
Rob Book, Delaware; Fletcher B. Jones, John C. Lee Jr., Mecklenburg;
Russell G. Brown, Brad H. Hicks, Northern Neck; Wade C. House,
David E. Schleicher, Northern Virginia; David T. Kindle, Brad Coppock,
Powell Valley; Herbert R. Patrick, Casey J. Logan, Prince George;
Sanford Reaves Jr., John D. Hewa, Rappahannock; G. Todd Van Horn,
Greg S. Rogers, Shenandoah Valley; Frank W. Bacon, Jason C. Loehr,
Southside.
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ADVERTISING published is accepted on the premise that
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From left, Smithfield Foods Senior Community
Development Manager Jonathan Toms and
Kyle DeGood, president and founder of The
DeGood Foundation, pose with Dolly Parton
Look-a-Like Contest winner Claire Childs,
as her mother takes a photo during the Feb. 18
Dolly Parton Imagination Library kickoff event
in Smithfield.
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library comes to Isle of Wight
A BLOW AGAINST ILLITERACY HAS BEEN STRUCK IN ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY.
Smithfield Foods, in conjunction with the DeGood Foundation and other state and local
partners, has brought singer-songwriter and philanthropist Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
to the county, home to many Community Electric Cooperative members.
Inspired by her father's inability to read and write, Parton started her Imagination Library
in 1995 for children within her home county in Tennessee. Today, her program spans five
countries and gifts over two million free books each month to children around the world
through funding shared by Parton and local community partners. Children who are registered
with the program receive a free brand-new, age-appropriate book in the mail every single
month from the time they're born until they start kindergarten at age five.
" I have personally been a fan of this program for a long time, " says Jonathan Toms,
senior community development manager for Smithfield Foods. " It's wonderful that we can
now bring this great resource here, locally. "
Kyle DeGood, who founded the nonprofit DeGood Foundation in 2017 to address
children's literacy and other local childcare issues within the Hampton Roads region of Virginia,
says the Isle of Wight extension of Parton's Imagination Library is one of his foundation's
biggest achievements to date.
" This has been our most successful regional launch in Virginia, " says DeGood, who
has aided in launching three additional Imagination Libraries in Newport News, Hampton
and York. " Our research shows that nearly a quarter of children in lower-income households
are not kindergarten-ready in terms of literacy once they reach kindergarten age. This is
going to make a huge impact on this community. " 
Please recycle.
2 ● Cooperative Living ● April 2023
For more information, visit imaginationlibrary.com.
co-opliving.com
Closing the Book
on Illiteracy
PHOTO BY GREGG MACDONALD

http://www.imaginationlibrary.com http://www.co-opliving.com

Cooperative Living April 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living April 2023