Steve Jones Dancing for United Way's Imagination Library

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- A children's reading program is one of the organizations benefiting from this year's Dancing With Our Stars event.

United Way of Central Minnesota CEO Steve Jones is one of this year's six community dancers and has chosen the United Way's Dolly Parton's Imagination Library for Girls as his nonprofit.

Director of Marketing and Communications Sam Switzer says it's a book gifting program that gives every registered child a free book from birth to age five.

Surprisingly, people don't understand that there's a cost to us. Dolly Parton is not covering the costs. United Way covers all of the costs for about 5,000 children a year right now, and we have a goal to increase that number by about 2,000 in the next two years.

The United Way of Central Minnesota has been doing the Imagination Library program since 2005. During that time they have sent out 1.7 million books to central Minnesota families.

Statistics show that in many homes of socioeconomic strife, they have less than two books at age-appropriate reading level in their house.

They have a Progressive Dinner fundraiser for the program on Saturday, April 20th, and Saturday, April 27th. Tickets are still available on their website. They typically raise about $60,000 for the program through these annual dinners.

Jones has been on the job for a little over a year now, before that he spent 18 years in education administration including 10 years as the Superintendent at Little Falls Public Schools.

Jones has been paired with professional dancer Janell Missler. He says they are doing an East Coast Swing dance to a Dolly Parton song.

WJON is featuring all of this year's community dancers participating in the Women's Fund Presents Dancing With Our Stars Event.

Brady DeGagne feature

This Year’s Dancers

Community Star Michelle Meier with Arbor Hair Studio will dance with pro Tuan (David) Le to benefit the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation for its Camp Oasis Summer Program for Girls. Click here to donate
Community Star Cathy Elness with the St. Cloud Area YMCA will dance with pro Jeff Ringer to benefit the YMCA’s Girls ‘Safety Around Water’ (SAW) program. Click here to donate
Community Star Debra Leigh with the St. Cloud Technical and Community College will dance with pro Lee Morgan for Women’s Leadership Pathways at the SCTCC Multicultural Center. Click here to donate
Community Star Steve Jones with the United Way of Central Minnesota will dance with pro Janell Missler to benefit the United Way’s Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library for Girls. Click here to donate
Community Star Jim Maurice with WJON will dance with pro Lisa Lawson to benefit Quiet Oaks Hospice House for its Quiet Oaks Supporting Women program. Click here to donate
Community Star Brady DeGagne with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central MN will dance with pro Rachel Trout to benefit the Club’s SMART Girls program. Click here to donate

The finale is on Monday, June 10th at the College of St. Benedict. Tickets are available now for you to attend.