Dolly Day is perfect time to celebrate new Book Nook in Womens Childrens NICU
BACKGROUND: Tomorrow is 9-2-5 (cue the soundtrack!) and Dolly Parton Day at University Health (and let’s face it, all over the world). In partnership with the Imagination Library of San Antonio (ILSA), we are honoring the late singer and philanthropist with a new Dolly’s Book Nook at University Health Women's & Children's Hospital, the first hospital in San Antonio registering all NICU babies from birth. Parents are over the moon!
Pharmacist Alexa Volpe founded the Imagination Library of San Antonio on a simple conviction: every child deserves a library of their own, books that are a joy to read, and stories that connect all of us. A volunteer-run local nonprofit and Local Program Partner of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, ILSA mails a free book every month from birth to age five and has sent more than 12,000 books to nearly 3,000 children across 26 ZIP codes since March 2025. With University Health, it now reaches babies facing some of the greatest health risks of their lives, and lays the groundwork to grow across the University Health system and, in time, to every baby born in San Antonio.
“As a pharmacist, I have learned that the strongest medicine often is not medicine at all,” Volpe said. “Families bonding over books is a prescription for a healthier life, and if you are on the side of literacy, you are on the side of health. A home library that starts in the NICU is doing brain building work, one book at a time.”
A lot of love has gone into this project from University Health team members and the Dolly’s Book Nook was hand-painted by ILSA board member Lenae Diskin.
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WHO: |
University Health representatives |
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WHAT:
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Talk to parents and providers, view Dolly’s Book Nook and meet tiny book recipients |
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WHEN:
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Friday, September 25, 11 a.m. |
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WHERE: |
University Health Women’s & Children’s Hospital |
