Warren Coalition’s HALO Read Kick-Off a success

The Warren Coalition held the HALO (Help All Little Ones) Read Kick-Off event on Sunday, November 22^nd, near Fantasy Land playground. Adorned with train tracks and featuring safe, socially-distanced activities, the event was the first opportunity for the youngest children of Warren County to sign up for free books.

The Warren Coalition’s HALO Read program is an affiliate of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The Imagination Library mails free books to registered children, ages 0-4. The goal of the program is to develop a life-long love of reading.

Denise Hackney gives a coloring book to a child during the HALO Read Kick-Off Event on November 22nd. Photo / Celeste Brooks

“We were blessed with good weather and a great group of volunteers who read books to the children, played games with them, and handed out coloring books,” said Joyce Jenkins-Wimmer, the HALO Read coordinator. “It was a strong start for a brand-new program. We look forward to growing it throughout the next year.”

Families can still register for HALO Read. Registration forms will be distributed at pre-schools, churches, and other venues around the county. A registration form may be obtained from the Warren County Community Center, located at 538 Villa Avenue, Front Royal, VA. It may also be downloaded here.

HALO Read is administered by the Warren Coalition, in partnership with Warren County Public Schools and WHAT MATTERS. The Warren Coalition thanks the Founding Sponsors of the HALO Read program, including American Woodmark, Windcrest Foundation, and the Middleburg Library Advisory Board. In addition to these, Rotary District 7570 provided a collaborative district grant in partnership with the Rotary Club of the Northern Shenandoah Valley, Rotary Club of Warren County and Rotary Club of Front Royal. The Rotary grant will sponsor 100 newborns through the entire five-year program, while also providing literacy materials to the Front Royal Light up Academy and Maisha Home for Children in Uganda. Many generous individual donors have contributed as well.

Warren Coalition is a nonprofit agency established in 1994 to help fill the gaps in health care and substance abuse awareness to the community. The Coalition began under the guidance of Warren Memorial Hospital as an outreach project, but it has since grown and was incorporated in 2001.  The office is currently located in the Warren County Community Center.  Their mission is to make Warren County a safe, healthy, and drug free community through many programs and in collaboration with 15+ member agencies.

Since launching in 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has become the preeminent early childhood book gifting program in the world. The flagship program of The Dollywood Foundation has gifted well over 140 million free books in Australia, Canada, The Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom and the United States. The Imagination Library mails more than 1.7 million high-quality, age-appropriate books each month to registered children from birth to age five. Dolly envisioned creating a lifelong love of reading, inspiring them to dream. The impact of the program has been widely researched and results suggest positive increases in key early childhood literacy metrics. Penguin Random House is the exclusive publisher for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. For more information, please visit imaginationlibrary.com.