ASHLAND — Hayes Helms, the 4-month-old son of UH Samaritan nurse Kayla Helms, can’t read just yet.
But that doesn’t stop him from receiving books with his name on them every month from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Ohio, the state branch of a national program that mails free books to kids from birth through age five.
Helms and her family met with Ohio First Lady Fran DeWine on Thursday when she took a brief tour of the medical center to promote the Imagination Library program.
Helms first heard about the program through her grandmother, “a huge Dolly Parton fan,” who suggested she sign her now 4-year-old daughter, Haven, up for the program.
“She gets excited when she gets her books in mail. That’s her only mail that she gets,” Helms said.
So when Helms gave birth to her second child, Hayes, she signed him up for the program as a part of her visits to the UH Samaritan Birthing and Women’s Unit.
Fran DeWine helped expand the Imagination Library in Ohio starting in 2019.
Four years later, 52 percent of the state’s children are signed up for the program and it’s given out over 10 million books, DeWine said.
Most counties have a local affiliate that helps administrate the program, but Ashland doesn’t, which was part of the reason why DeWine chose to stop in the county on Thursday.
But according to DeWine, community leaders are going to get together in a few weeks to figure out an affiliate.
“I think it’s just fun to see communities that really work together so much as they do here in Ashland County,” she said.
DeWine’s choice of venue, the UH Samaritan Medical Center, was to highlight the importance of signing babies up for the program right at birth. This would result in the child having “quite a library” of 60 books before they turn five, DeWine said.
Hospital visits also give DeWine a chance to see some babies, something she’ll “always do,” she said.
