"Thank you again from the Imagination Library all over Kentucky!" Dolly Parton said, capping off a brief swing through Lexington last year to announce the expansion of the program to all 120 counties.
The country music icon celebrated the growth of her signature reading initiative alongside the governor and the first lady to loud applause in Lexington's Lyric Theatre.
But fast forward to December 2025 and financial challenges in Fayette County are putting a hold on the program, which delivers free books every month to kids from birth until the start of kindergarten.
Funding comes both from the nonprofit Fayette Education Foundation and the Kentucky General Assembly. But enrollment levels, increasing costs, and questions about sustainable funding have prompted what supporters hope is a temporary pause.
January books will go out as expected, but the program will then be suspended.
The Education Foundation is working to locate new revenue streams with the aim of restarting the program in Fayette County.