Tomorrow is Arizona Gives Day — and we want to tell you about 2,138 reasons it matters.

Through United Way of Northern Arizona's partnership with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, 2,138 children in Coconino, Navajo and Apache counties received more than 11,000 carefully chosen, age-appropriate books in 2025 alone.

That's 2,138 kids growing up knowing that stories belong to them.

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library mails free, high-quality books directly to children from birth until age five — regardless of family income. Founded in 1995, the program now mails over 3 million books every month across five countries.

This gift of books have a remarkable impact: a landmark 2025 global study of 86,000 families found that after just ten books, children in the program were 4 times more likely to demonstrate stronger emerging literacy skills than children not enrolled. In the United States, those children were 11 times more likely to be interested in books.

Imagine the toddler who is just learning how to "operate" a book; that by turning the pages, they can dive into amazing pictures and adventures. Or the four-year old, who knows that once a month, a piece of mail comes addressed directly to them with a new volume to explore.

And with each gift, there's tips tucked right in the book for parents and caregivers, so they can make the most of the time they are reading to - and then reading with - their children.

A habit of reading, a love of reading, takes root.

That's what your support makes possible right here in Northern Arizona.

This Arizona Gives Day, we're working towards a $5,000 goal to keep books flowing to the children.

We hope you'll join us, because, as Dolly tells us: "You can never get enough books in the hands of enough children."