Edmunds County Tribune -

The Stephanie Miller-Davis Memorial Fund was established to remember Stephanie while continuing her investment in children. The fund supports early childhood literacy in South Dakota with a focus on rural communities. The fund supports communities that are willing to establish a Dolly Parton Imagination Library for their children. The fund will pay for 100% for four years and 50% in year five.

The Marcus P. Beebe Memorial Library in Ipswich applied for the Stephanie Miller-Davis grant for their summer reading program in 2019. At the end of the application was a question, "Are you interested in getting the Dolly Parton Imagination Library (DPIL) in your community?" They responded yes and found out there was a lot of interest from their community. Members of the library board soon contacted Laura Kelly, Children & Youth Services Coordinator for SDSL and asked, "How do we get started receiving assistance from the Stephanie Miller-Davis Fund to help pay the postage of books and other expenses?"

Library Board President, Deb Gillick went to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library website and found the Ipswich area contact. Deb reached out to DPIL and shortly after the conversation, the library received startup information. COVID-19 slowed down response times, but the library didn't give up hope and continued their efforts to designate all of Edmunds County as the service area for this program.

The Marcus P. Beebe Memorial Library could not have an open summer reading program as planned where they were going to launch the DPIL. Instead they mailed registration forms to families with new babies in the county, posted information on Facebook and had information in the local newspaper. In the end, their first book order was for 62 children.

Gillick stated, "Without the incentive of the Stephanie Miller-Davis Foundation, our library could not have started this program. It is not a quick process, COVID-19 slowed us down, but I am glad the library kept going. We have made so many Edmunds County families very happy and getting a book in hands of children is a great reward."

For more information contact Deb Gillick by email [email protected].

The Ipswich library now serves all families living in Edmunds County. After six months they now have 89 children registered. Most of the children are under the age of two. "We have a lot of readers in our service area not reached yet and hope to be over 100 children by the end of 2021," said Gillick. "This achievement was reached with the help of the Stephanie Miller-Davis Foundation," she said.