Come celebrate Project Ready for School’s fourth birthday with the United Way of Greater Chattanooga at a community-wide party on Sunday, September 21. The party will be held at East Lake Park (3108 East 34^th Street in Chattanooga, off Dodds Avenue) from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. This celebration is FREE to the public and everyone is encouraged to join in on the fun.

Families that join the party can enjoy the following:

• Free cake, beverages and healthy snacks;
• Free developmental learning check-ups;
• Free Creative Discovery Museum family passes for every family that completes a check-up;
• Free book enrollments;
• Free early learning DVDs;
• making bubbles with Signal Centers;
• jumping on the Moonwalk;
• storytelling with Hamilton County’s Read Mobile;
• finger painting on easels with Parents are First Teachers
• story time with Chattanooga volunteer firefighters and seeing a real fire engine;
• bird seed play with Creative Discovery Museum
• playing language activities with the Speech & Hearing Center;
• face painting with the Girl Scouts of Moccasin Bend and the Health Department’s TENNder Care program;
• the Chattanooga Zoo’s mobile petting zoo;
• kid-friendly temporary tattoos and sport games provided by the Henry branch of the YMCA; 
• a “Get Fit” station for kids with BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee’s Volunteer State Health program.  

The party is part of Governor Phil Bredesen’s Imagination Library Week in Tennessee and it caps off a fun-filled statewide celebration of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program. Imagination Library Week (September 14 to 21) is packed with events – such as our Project Ready for School birthday party – which are aimed at boosting enrollment across the state.

The United Way of Greater Chattanooga and Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey, working together with the Governor’s Books from Birth Foundation, launched the Imagination Library program here four years ago. This program is part of the United Way’s Project Ready for School initiative, which offers a free book per month to children under age five in five counties, including Hamilton and Marion counties in Tennessee

“Now that just over one out of every two eligible children in Tennessee is registered in this important prekindergarten literacy program, I recognize there are still many more families with young children left to reach," said Gov. Bredesen. "Imagination Library Week is an opportunity to generate greater awareness for the program, and the importance of reading to children regularly as preparation for formal education. Thanks to the dedication and hard work of volunteers in all 95 counties, we are working toward instilling a love of books and reading - at the earliest possible age - in each and every one of Tennessee's children."

The cost of delivering 12 hardback books to one child in Tennessee is $28 annually. In Hamilton and Marion counties, this cost is split evenly between United Way’s Project Ready for School and a state budgetary allocation requested annually by the governor, approved by the General Assembly, and administered by the Governor’s Books from Birth Foundation. That means United Way’s Project Ready for School must raise $14 per child, per year, to keep the free books coming. In Georgia, United Way works with the Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy and local community action teams to offer the Imagination Library program to children in Dade, Catoosa and Walker counties. The cost in Georgia is $36 per child per year, which must be raised by the local community.

More than 16,000 children in these five counties now receive age-appropriate, hardback books in the mail each month at no cost to their families. Families can enroll at the party at the Project Ready for School booth. You can also call United Way at 423-752-0333 for a brochure or go online at www.LiveUnitedChattanooga.org to enroll. After United Way receives a completed enrollment form signed by a parent, the child’s first book typically is mailed within eight to ten weeks.  

United Way of Greater Chattanooga funds local programs that create opportunities for people to care for themselves and each other, making our community the best at helping people achieve their potential. Thanks to an endowment fund that covers all overhead and administrative expenses, all contributions (100 percent) go directly to services that help individuals and families in greater Chattanooga, north Georgia and northeast Alabama.

Call the United Way at 423-752-0300 for more information.