Hoosiers Read announces $1M Contribution from CenterPoint Energy Foundation
This donation aims to improve early-childhood literacy by bringing Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to 18,000 children in Vanderburgh, Vigo, Madison, and Monroe counties.
Evansville, Ind. – Jun. 17, 2021 – Hoosiers Read today announced a $1,000,000 grant from the CenterPoint Energy Foundation to support their efforts to improve early childhood literacy in Indiana. The donation will be used to bring Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to four new counties in the state of Indiana, setting aside $250,000 for each of the four counties: Vanderburgh, Vigo, Madison, and Monroe counties. The CenterPoint Energy Foundation’s commitment will support the enrollment of more than 18,000 children over a five-year period.
Hoosiers Read was born out of the Mitch Daniels Leadership Foundation (MDLF). Each year, Mitch Daniels Leadership Fellows pitch influential state leaders on ideas to improve Indiana. 2019-2020 Fellow Ben Battaglia’s proposal to improve literacy by mailing free books to young children struck a chord and Hoosiers Read was formed. The perfect partner for this endeavor? Dolly Parton. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is an international book gifting program that has gifted millions
of books to young children since its inception in 1995. Dolly and her team work with affiliates like Hoosiers Read to mail one free, high-quality and developmentally appropriate book each month to children from birth to age five, no matter their family’s income.
“Hoosiers Read and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library are working together to make sure every kid in Indiana grows up with books in their home. Investments like this in early reading have a significant, well-proven return on long-run academic success,” added Ben Battaglia, founder of Hoosiers Read. “I’m grateful for CenterPoint Energy Foundation’s generosity, vision, and partnership to get books in the hands of thousands of our youngest Hoosiers.”
“One of the CenterPoint Energy Foundation’s key funding priorities is quality literacy programs”, said Amanda Schmitt, CenterPoint Energy Foundation President, “Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library does excellent work in the literacy space and we are proud to partner with Hoosiers Read to expand the program to new counties in Indiana.”
About Hoosiers Read
Hoosiers Read is a nonprofit focused on improving child literacy in Indiana. We were founded by Ben Battaglia in 2019 as a project born out of the Mitch Daniels Leadership Foundation. Today, Hoosiers Read partners with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to directly bring books to kids, as well as support and grow the program statewide. Learn more at hoosiersread.org.
About CenterPoint Energy
As the only investor owned electric and gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. As of March 31, 2021, the company owned approximately $36 billion in assets and also owned 53.7 percent of
the common units representing limited partner interests in Enable Midstream Partners, LP, a publicly traded master limited partnership that owns, operates and develops strategically located natural gas and crude oil infrastructure assets. With approximately 9,500 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. The CenterPoint Energy Foundation is a charitable giving vehicle focused on strengthening the
quality of life in the communities served by CenterPoint Energy. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com.
About Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free books to children from birth to age 5 in participating communities within the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and the Republic of Ireland. Since 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has delivered almost 160,000 million books to children in more than 2,000 communities. With the support of local funders, coordination by partners and encouragement from community leaders and
organizations, parents and educators spread the love of reading and engage children in the most fundamental skill necessary to succeed in life.
