On November 15th, YES was invited to attending the first Oregon gathering of Dolly Parton Imagination Library affiliates. It was an exciting day to learn more about the growth of the program, both nationally and regionally. YES was excited to discover that Yamhill County Imagination Library (YCIL) is one of the largest affiliates in the state.

The program has continued to thrive in 2019, and the numbers speak for themselves!

YCIL is open to every child from birth to age 5 living in Yamhill County. Themes of the books include love of reading and learning; regard for diversity of people; promotion of self-esteem and confidence. This program could help every family in Yamhill County build a library of as many as 60 books and foster a love of literacy, family interaction and relationship building.

YCIL is the result of a partnership between YES and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL). DPIL manages the selection, pricing and distribution of books while YES raises the money to cover the cost of approximately $25 per child per year.

Our book fees for 2019 will be almost $70,00! This year, we launched a Annual Sponsorship Program for local organizations to help financially support the program.  We’re so thankful to everyone who’s signed on to date, including the following:

Literary Agent ($5,000)
Yamhill Community Care Organization – YCIL received a generous grant of $10,000

Head Librarian ($2,500)

Story Teller ($1000)
Physicians Medical Center
Willamette Valley Medical Center
McMinnville Kiwanis

Reading Buddy ($500-$999)
Adam Diesburg Dentistry
First Federal
Haugeberg, Rueter, Gowell, Fredricks & Higgins, P.C.

Every month as we add children, young readers are graduating but we’re pressing toward our enrollment goal of 3,000 in 2020.

You can help!  Individuals can make donations here and businesses can email about Annual Sponsorship.

More important, please let Yamhill County families know about the program!  They can enroll online here.

Greetings from the Junior Orchestra of Yamhill County (JOY)! The school year is now in full swing and we are off to a good start to the 2019-2020 school year. At our Edwards Elementary site, we have to date around 200 students in our K-1st In-School violin program and 26 second graders on violin, viola, and cello in our After-School Orchestra.

Since the recent addition of our after-school orchestra, we have hired two additional Teaching Artists specializing in cello and viola to help further support our students as they transition from learning violin to viola or cello. Our students are already starting the journey of learning skills such as teamwork, responsibility, focus, and problem solving in rehearsals. A second grade JOY parent even mentioned to me that her child has been very diligent about making sure her violin comes with her in the grocery store, so it isn’t left alone in the car! These are the kind of skills that help kids become future leaders in their schools and communities.

Our JOY team at Edwards is now gearing up to take our second graders on a field trip on November 7th to our sister El Sistema program at Sitton Elementary in Portland as part of an ongoing partnership with Oregon BRAVO. We are also planning events and concerts in coordination with Edwards Elementary Music, Newberg School District’s Middle and High School orchestras, and George Fox University Department of Music for this academic year as part of our mission to engage with the Newberg community. With your support of YES and JOY, we are JOY-ously looking forward to the rest of this year as well as what we will have in store for years to come!

Please click here to help support JOY!