BIG DREAMS START WITH SMALL STEPS…
In 2016, Rosie’s Reading founder, Rick Marton, was President of the Rotary Club of Central Launceston, when two club members Adrian Wood and Wendy Honnor started a daily reading program where members would read with students at Ravenswood Heights Primary School.
As Rick read with different students he recognised that reading challenges happen for a range of reasons, but he also reflected on the gift he had been given by his Mum Rosie - to be read with daily and grow up in a home surrounded by books. It was indeed a privilege, but surely every child deserved that start. He was looking for programs that might offer a way to inspire more reading for kids, as a gift not as a chore.
Rick found Imagination Library in the US and noticed Tamworth in NSW had just launched here in Australia through United Way Australia. At 9:05pm on August 19, 2020 Rick sent UWA a contact request and the seeds of a dream began.
The biggest hurdles? The program required a local program partner wherever it operated to help fund the delivery and Rick was already on multiple boards with a very full corporate life. So clearing his professional and downsizing his other charity commitments was the start. The other hurdle was deciding who the local program partner would be.
That become much clearer in 2022, and over the next two years, a skills-based board was assembled and Rosie’s Reading registered as a Tasmanian charity to lead the local strategy, fundraising, rollout and community engagement in Tasmania.
The first official board meeting was in July 2024, and by May 2025, in partnership with United Way Australia, the first Imagination Library books were already arriving to enrolled children in Tasmanian homes.
Rosie’s Reading was created to bring Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library for the gift of reading to the children of Tasmania.
Today, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is the heartbeat of Rosie’s Reading.
ROSIE and her son...
Rosie came to Australia as a toddler from Austria. With a troubled home life, she became streetwise but her literacy skills weren’t strong.
When she fell pregnant (after being told she could not), she didn’t want the inability to read to hold her son back, so she started opening books with him every day.
To her son Rick, his Mum Rosie was his reading hero.
Rosie gave her son the gift of reading, imagination and a readiness to learn - but she also grew her own ability and confidence through thousands of moments of shared reading just by being a few words ahead.
When Rick told Rosie in 2020 he wanted to bring Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to Tasmania, his life was already full of commitments, and as a protective Mum, Rosie gave him this simple advice: “take some pressure off yourself first and then you’ll know when the time’s right.”
On 25 September 2022 Rosie passed away from a very short and rare illness. In the days before she moved to higher service (as Rotarians would say), conversations about her early struggles with literacy gave Rick an extra understanding of how much care and heart sat behind that gift of reading from his Mum. And now, the time was clearly right.
We know that every Tasmanian can be a child’s reading hero, just like Rosie was to Rick. She didn't teach him to read; she learned alongside him. And yet she will always be his reading hero. Her story reminds us that every Tasmanian, regardless of background or postcode, can help a child build a love of reading.
DOLLY PARTON: legacy and LITERACY CHAMPION
Dolly Parton grew up in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, the fourth of 12 children. She adored her father, Robert Lee Parton, who she called “the smartest man I’ve ever known.” He had a gift for numbers, but left school very young to work and help support his family, and never learned to read or write. Dolly believed his inability to read had prevented some of his own dreams from coming true.
That experience stayed with her. In 1995, Dolly established the Imagination Library in her home county of Sevier County, Tennessee, as a tribute to her Daddy and to give other children opportunities he never had. In Dolly’s words, “Inspiring kids to love to read became my mission.”
She was always proud that her little program grew into what it is today. But what it meant to her father meant the most, "My Daddy told me the Imagination Library was probably the most important thing I had ever done." What began in rural Tennessee ultimately spread across five countries, including Australia from 2013.
Dolly’s literacy legacy became extraordinary in scale: by 2026, the Imagination Library had gifted 332 million books worldwide to millions of children, including more than 2 million books delivered in Australia. But its not just about the numbers. Her legacy is best understood in the idea behind it. Dolly believed the dreams children carry begin in books, and that every child should have the chance to grow up surrounded by them regardless of their background or postcode.
On 25 August 2026, the world lost this witty, intelligent, talented and genuinely kind human but she was still working until the day she passed away to ensure that her legacy across all facets of her life would live on without her.
Dolly and the team at The Dollywood Foundation (the home of Imagination Library), worked for decades to build a network of Imagination Library partners across the world. While Dolly made her 80 years on earth a true gift to humankind, her focus on future planning means momentum will continue to build for many more generations. That means more lives will be given the strongest possible start to make dreams come true.
meet our VOLUNTEER board
We’ve assembled a volunteer board who are skilled and focused on building a strong and trusted organisation that makes a measurable impact in the lives of children, their families and our community as a whole.
Rick Marton GAICD
Chair & Founder
Rotarian, Business Strategist, Recent President and Director of Relationships Australia Tasmania and Speak Up Stay ChatTY!, Son of Rosie.
Ray Mostogl GAICD
Vice Chair
CEO Tasmanian Minerals, Manufacturing & Energy Council, Director of HILT CRC and Advisor to X-Hemp
Sarah Merridew AM FAICD
Treasurer
Australia Medal for work in Governance in both listed and community organisations including Mystate, TasNetworks, TasRail and RFDS Tasmania
Ashley McPherson
Director (Literacy + Evaluation)
Principal Blackmans Bay Primary School and State Director Australian Literacy Educators’ Association and member of the Australian Book Selection Committee for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
Eric Gooi
Director (People + Teams)
Secretary / Vice-Chair at Thrive Group Tasmania Inc and Board Member of the Launceston Community Legal Centre.
Jade Howard
Secretary (Community)
Intensive Care Paramedic, Ambulance Tasmania and Mum of 2 ‘Early Years’ Children with skills in project management and a special interest in community development.
Kirsty Dunphey GAICD
Director (Grants + Ambassadors)
Passionate about literacy, Kirsty is an award-winning businesswoman across multiple businesses, including real estate and mortgage broking. Kirsty is a huge bookworm and understands the power of literacy to change lives.
The Board is supported by Linda Harrison in a volunteer accountancy role and the support of over 40 Tasmanians across health, education, justice, community and inclusion.
Our Guiding Principle: Never make a promise you can’t afford to keep.
For this reason, we build our programs to be replicatable, scalable and sustainable.
a special partnership:
united way australia
United Way Australia (UWA) are a trusted non-denominational charity who allow Rosie’s to deliver maximum impact with the lowest possible overhead costs . UWA manage Imagination Library in Australia on behalf of The Dollywood Foundation who also supply the automated Book Ordering System.
Their partnership with the support of their donors, allows us to roll out Imagination Library at just $9 per book, packaged and delivered to each home, which is a fraction of the real world cost. They also supply a whole team of experts including evaluation and literacy at no cost to us, which means Rosie’s Reading can focus on the local impact of reading across the community, and directing every donated dollar to more books for more children.
“This program will change lives, and those lives will change communities.”
- Leanne McLean, Former Commissioner for Children and Young People and Director of Peter Underwood Centre for Educational Attainment