A program that provides free books every month to 3,000 children in Penobscot County will continue thanks to donors who came forward after a state funding cut.
Jonathan Ireland and Erica Spencer have been running My First Bookshelf, a nonprofit that sends one book a month to children under the age of 5, since 2023. It’s one of 15 affiliates of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in the state.
But this year has been the hardest for the organization after the state cut funding for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Without that funding, the program had to find new ways to stay open.
While other Maine affiliates have had to change their programs or shutter them, My First Bookshelf is among those able to continue with no modifications after it secured $56,700 in donations, Ireland said. That money will allow Ireland and Spencer to continue the program for at least eight months.
My First Bookshelf has the second largest membership of all Imagination Library affiliates in New England. The program has delivered nearly 100,000 books to children in Penobscot County since 2023, Ireland said.
The pair have been reaching out to donors for months to secure more funding. Instead of asking for dollar amounts, Ireland asked for donations that would support 200 children receiving books for a year, he said.
Each month of the program costs roughly $7,000, Ireland said. With Ireland pitching in some of his own income, My First Bookshelf could continue for 10 months, he said.
Nearly all of the funds go toward buying and shipping the books, with just 2% of the funding needed for other costs, Ireland said. Ireland and Spencer do not get paid.
Ireland is applying for grants and reaching out to donors to ensure books continue to go out even after this current funding runs out. He’s also preparing a pitch to have Maine’s next governor restore the funding, he said.
“I’m planning to do a full court press with whoever gets in there. I know they have a lot of priorities, and a lot of folks are pretty divisive about what things get funded and how much funding there is, and everybody’s taxes go up, and everybody’s kind of mad at everybody else, but there’s not a good argument against this program,” Ireland said.
While there’s no proof of a direct link between My First Bookshelf’s program and children’s test scores, Spencer, an English teacher in Milford, said she has seen the positive effect the books have on children.
“I see it firsthand in my day-to-day as a teacher, children need to have books in their home,” Spencer said.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated that My First Bookshelf is the only Maine affiliate of the Imagination Library continuing on without changes.