After serving as a member of the Hopkinsville-Christian County Imagination Library Advisory Board for nearly a year, in June Nickie Gaffney was appointed as the coordinator of the local Imagination Library.
Imagination Library is an initiative founded by country singer Dolly Parton that provides free monthly books to children highlighting the importance of early childhood literacy.
In Christian County, Gaffney says she is responsible for ensuring that over 3,000 children receive monthly books. Gaffney says taking on this role is a highlights element in her life such as having a focus on the literacy of her own children when they were younger and being able to serve a military community after growing up in one.
In her position, Gaffney wants to share the importance of the Imagination Library and wants to see more people take advantage of the library because not every community has this literary resource.
To bring more awareness to what the Imagination Library does, Gaffney is working to engage community members, and one program she has started is Hometown Helpers. Gaffney invites members of public service to highlight what they do and read to children.
As Coordinator, Gaffney says she feels as though she is continuing a legacy and looks forward to furthering the progress made by coordinators that led the Imagination Library before her.
Gaffney says she is working on more community events in the future and to tune into the Hopkinsville-Christian County Public Library Facebook page to stay up to date on Imagination Library events.