Crushers raise $3,000 for Imagination Library in honor of Dolly Parton

The Lake Erie Crushers and Lorain County Community Foundation came together on Friday to honor the life and legacy of Dolly Parton by raising money for the nonprofit effort that she started more than 30 years ago. The team and the foundation used the Crushers Sept. 4 game against the Joliet Slammers to celebrate and raise money for the Lorain County Imagination Library. The fundraiser collected more than $3,100, and that money will be used to supply 100 Lorain County kids with books for an entire year, Community Foundation marketing and communications associate Jacob Walther said. Parton, a beloved country music star and humanitarian, founded the first Imagination Library in her home of Sevier County, Tennessee in 1995 and oversaw its expansion to a nationwide nonprofit providing American kids with free books. The event on Friday served both as a fundraiser for the Lorain County library and as a way to honor Parton's life after her death on Aug. 25. The team ran singalongs and trivia during the game to celebrate Parton, and some of her greatest hits were played during the fireworks show at the end of the game. The festivities also included a reading of the iconic "Casey at the Bat" poem to kids at home plate by representatives of the Crusher and the Community Foundation. Since 2015, the Lorain County Imagination Library has distributed more than 1 million books to kids in the county. Under the program, kids receive one free book a month, every month from birth until they turn 5 years old. In addition to the fundraiser supporting the library, Walther said that the Crushers also donated $3,000 to the Community Foundation itself to help kick off its Connect to a Cause fundraising event, which will be held on Sept. 17. The money will be distributed between the 112 causes that the drive will support.