Dolly Parton and Macquarie Park have a closer relationship than you may think
Literacy charity United Way are Macquarie Park royalty, with their annual Business Community Walkathon embraced by many local employers every year. Now, a Macquarie University researcher is studying the connection between Dolly Parton, our area and teaching children to read…
Teams from Connect MPID members FUJIFILM Business Innovation, Johnson & Johnson, Optus and Stockland participated in the 2022 Walkathon, helping raise money for literacy initiatives administered by United Way Australia.
United Way partner with the The Dolly Parton Imagination Library to provide books for young learners right here in Ryde, as well as further afield.
To millions of adults, Dolly Parton is a singing superstar. To millions of preschoolers, she is ‘The Book Lady’. Her book project nurtures a love of reading by distributing free books to children all over the world - 190 million books, and counting!
Last year, more than 10,000 books were distributed to over 932 children in Ryde alone.
In a first-of-its-kind study, Claire Galea - a PhD candidate in Macquarie University’s School of Psychological Sciences - will chart the effect the global reading program has had on children, focusing on the New South Wales town of Tamworth where more than 2,600 children are enrolled.
Galea, who is also a statistician and impact analyst with United Way Australia, says she hopes to understand more about the impact of shared book reading on a child’s development. Her research will form part of a new international survey.
“There have been few academic publications evaluating the effectiveness of Dolly’s Parton Imagination Library and none that do so at the international level we are undertaking.” said Galea.
United Way Australia’s CEO Clayton Noble cited the importance of reading with children - including very young children.
“A baby’s brain doubles in the first year,” he says.
“The best time to read to a child if you want to build a healthy brain is always when the brain is developing.”
“Ninety per cent of a child’s brain develops by the age of five” said Noble.
To help keep up this incredible work, make sure you get around the Macquarie Park Business Community Walkathon when it returns to the Park later this year!
