Spreading the joy of reading: United Way of Greater Lima.(Community Impact Awards)

The United Way of Greater Lima hopes to instill a love of reading in children with a simple tool: an age-appropriate book delivered monthly to every child in Allen County.

Launching its second year of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library through a contract with the Dollywood Foundation, the United Way Women's Leadership Initiative is raising the $90,000 necessary to provide 3,000 children with classic childhood tales such as The Little Engine That Could--the program's first book.

"We have kind of a high population of literacy problems here in the community," says Beverly J. Prueter, agency president. In a national survey 10 years ago, 25 percent of Lima adults …