Judie Baker-Basil

Owner

Judie Baker-Basil moved to Pine Island, Florida, in May 2014 with her husband, Mickey Basil. She owns Basil’s Bottle and Glassworks, located in Flea masters Flea market. Prior to moving to Florida, she lived in the Washington, DC, area where she co-owned J & F Associates (a safe company). She is a Certified Safe Technician. Other career roles included sales training and opening new branch offices as a Vice­President for WMI, an international sales company.

In 2017 Judie met Shawn Gilstad, co-founder of Charlotte County Imagination Library (in 2011), an affiliate of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. This program intrigued Judie, as she had studied Biology and Special Education at Towson State University and has a passion for child development. Over the next few years, Judie learned more about the Imagination Library program, which mails a free book to preschool children every month until they turn 5 years old.

Conversations with Imagination Library program staff in Tennessee gave Judie further encouragement to consider establishing an affiliate to serve the estimated 37,000 preschool-age children living in Lee County. She worked with an attorney to establish Lee County Imagination Library, a non-profit organization with 501(c)3 designation and the solicitation permit from the State of Florida in July 2022. Local affiliates of the Imagination Library program have 2 roles -to register the preschool children living in the contracted area and to raise the $26 per child needed annually to pay for the 12 free books to be mailed to each child. The Dollywood Foundation covers the other program expenses at no cost to the affiliates, such as technology, marketing materials, book selection, and contracts with publishers and other companies responsible for getting the books from publication to mail.