Trish Biddix, a Phi Kappa Phi member and volunteer with the Athens-Limestone County Family Resource Center, was awarded a 2026 Literacy Grant that will help bring thousands of books to young children in Limestone County, Alabama.

Through its partnership with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL), the Family Resource Center provides free, age-appropriate books each month to children from birth through age 5. The program currently serves more than 3,100 children, delivering more than 38,000 books each year.

For families who may not have the resources to regularly purchase books, receiving a new book each month can open the door to a home library and create opportunities for parents and children to read together. Those early experiences can help children develop language and literacy skills while building confidence, curiosity and imagination.

The Family Resource Center serves a community where families face significant financial challenges. Nearly every family served by the center is at or below 150% of the federal poverty level. By providing books at no cost to families, DPIL helps ensure that a family’s financial circumstances do not determine whether a child has access to books.

The $2,500 Phi Kappa Phi Literacy Grant will help the Family Resource Center cover postage costs for the Imagination Library program. As the local affiliate, the Family Resource Center is responsible for paying the postage associated with mailing books to participating children.

“Thanks to the 2026 Phi Kappa Phi Literacy Grant, we are able to continue our commitment to providing books to nearly 3,200 children in our community free of charge. We hope these books promote early reading, foster a love of reading and encourage lifelong learning,” Biddix says.

While many people know Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library as a free book program, local affiliates are responsible for raising funds to cover the costs associated with providing the program, including postage. Support from grants and community donors helps local affiliates continue mailing books to children at no cost to their families.

The impact reaches well beyond the cost of a single book. Consistent access to books gives children an opportunity to develop early reading skills before they enter school and helps families make reading part of everyday life.

At the heart of these efforts is the belief that learning can change what is possible for a family.

For Biddix and the Family Resource Center, the Phi Kappa Phi Literacy Grant is an investment in that belief. It will help cover the costs of books and postage while putting books into the hands of young children and laying the foundation for a lifelong love of reading and learning.

And sometimes, that lifelong journey starts with something as small as a book arriving in the mailbox.