Eli Morgan (left), 5, and Jimmy White, 4, both of Bowling Green, read their new books handed out by Wendy of Wendy's of Bowling Green on Wednesday, June 1, 2016, at the Family Enrichment Center's Wee Care Nursery. Each child at the nursery were officially adopted into the United Way's Dolly Parton's Imagination Library Program through a donation by Wendy's of Bowling Green. (Miranda Pederson/photo@bgdailynews.com)

Children at the Family Enrichment Center’s Wee Care Nursery gathered Wednesday as the character Wendy from Wendy’s of Bowling Green read “King Jack and the Dragon” in celebration of the restaurant sponsoring the center in United Way’s Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Program.

This is the third consecutive year that Wendy’s has adopted the children enrolled at the nursery for the program that allows for all the children currently enrolled to receive one book per month mailed directly to their home until they reach 5 years old at no cost to the family. 

“Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas, one of his business principles was to give back to the community and to support those that support us,” said Bayne Million, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Wendy’s of Bowling Green. “We feel this is a great way to give back and to give to the youth of the area.”

Million said that Wendy’s tries to support educational causes in the area to the benefit of the children by also sponsoring Junior Achievement of South Central Kentucky for elementary and high school students and The Leader in Me program through the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce. 

Wee Care Child Care Director Hailey Moberly said the program is important for the children because children at Wee Care are at risk for child abuse or neglect and in some cases it’s already happened. Depending on the situation, most likely there is a financial burden for the families to purchase books and other materials, she said.

“We all know that birth to 5 is a crucial age for development (and) they don’t have the money to (purchase books). So, these books every month not only give them the resource, but it gives them something that the parent and child can do together,” Moberly said. 

Moberly further explained that the free program gives the families an opportunity to do a child and parent bonding activity around the book and that sometimes even going to the mailbox can be a big deal for them to see what book they received that month. 

United Way of Southern Kentucky brought the Imagination Library to the area in 2011 and more than 92,000 books have been mailed to over 5,300 children across Allen, Barren, Butler, Edmonson, Hart, Logan, Metcalfe, Monroe and Warren counties, according to a press release.  

Board member Ann Puckett said it’s really tough statistic in the state of Kentucky to hear that roughly 50 percent of children are not ready to start kindergarten. Programs like the Imagination Library is one way United Way is working to increase the area’s kindergarten readiness scores from 49.4 percent to 75 percent by the year 2020.

“I think you see the kids’ faces when they have a book in their hand and the joy they have and the hope is they’re putting books in the hands of kids who may not have that opportunity to have their own books,” Puckett said. “All of this is geared toward a lot of United Way’s efforts toward early childhood education and preparing kids to be ready when they enter school to succeed.”

— Follow faith/general assignments reporter Simone C. Payne on Twitter @SimonePayne or visit bgdailynews.com.