by Dan Miner
www.bizjournals.com 

Read to Succeed Buffalo has received an $18,900 contribution from the Buffalo Rotary Foundation — part of the foundation's three-year, $60,000 investment in the program.

The funds will continue the expansion of the Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, launched in 2011, which provides a free, age-appropriate book each month to registered children living in the Read to Succeed Buffalo literacy zone in the city's East Side. Children from birth to 5 years old are eligible for the program. More than 550 children are currently enrolled and about 4,600 books have been distributed since 2011, with nearly half of the families reported reading to their children every day, according to a Read to Succeed news release.

Read to Succeed Buffalo's executive director, Anne Ryan, said the program's goal is to enroll 1,500 children by the close of 2014. Those seeking to register a child in the 14215 zip code can contact Read to Succeed Buffalo at 716-843-8895, or visit www.readtosucceedbuffalo.org.

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is a national program launched in 1996, involving more than 1,600 local communities and almost 700,000 children on a monthly basis.