Longboat residents turn the page with Sarasota Library Foundation

Just like the small blue engine in “The Little Engine That Could,” the Library Foundation of Sarasota County is chugging toward a hefty goal. And prominent Longboat Key philanthropists are providing the fiscal engine.

Last December, the foundation started its campaign to raise $500,000 for the Children’s Literary Endowment, which will fund the foundation’s chapter of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

The foundation has until the end of the month to reach its goal. As of Dec. 11, it has $131,000 left to raise. 

Two Key couples and a local foundation have been at the forefront in raising the necessary money to continue the program — Bob and Pat Gussin, Rick and Nancy Moskovitz and the Charles and Margery Barancik Foundation.

The Gussins and Moskovitzes have each donated $100,000. The Barancik Foundation has pledged to donate the last $50,000 should the campaign raise $450,000.

“The Barancik Foundation is deeply committed to the notion that education is the cornerstone to individual well-being and economic prosperity,” Teri Hansen, president and CEO of the foundation, said in a statement. “We hope the capping grant incentive will inspire others to contribute to the Literacy Endowment Campaign and ensure our community’s neediest children will always be exposed to reading at an early age.”

If the campaign is successful, 900 children a year will reap the benefits of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

Imagination Library, a program that comes from the Dollywood Foundation, provides a new book every month to children until they turn 5. In Sarasota, the program is reaching 692 children in 12 ZIP codes that have been identified with the greatest need based on the number of children who receive free and reduced lunch.

The first book children receive through the program is “The Little Engine That Could” by Watty Piper. The final book is “Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!” by Nancy Carlson. In between, the children receive 58 other books.

The library foundation was launched 2012.

Suzanne Seiter, the foundation’s executive director, said its mission is to support the library with private dollars and enhance the library experience. This program is bringing new visitors to local libraries.

“These are families in many cases who have never used the library,” she said. “They’re not our regular folks. These are people we have to discover and engage in reading and the library.”

Rick and Nancy Moskovitz say the library foundation is a way to get involved in the community and fight against poverty at a local level. Rick Moskovitz said literacy and education are crucial to vocational and economic achievement in adulthood.

“I think it will reinforce a love of learning in both the kids and the parents, and it’s a nice real-world interaction where both kids and adults have been increasingly distracted by devices,” Moskovitz said.

For the Gussins, who came up with the idea for the endowment, the opportunity to introduce books to kids at a young age and giving them a chance to bond with their parents was one that couldn’t be passed up.

“Hopefully it will prevent them from, which is an epidemic, illiteracy,” Pat Gussin said.