I love Dolly Parton. I grew up loving her and, getting to know more about her as an adult, I love her even more.
It’s not her music either. Don’t get me wrong – her music is amazing. Her songwriting is absolutely prolific – she wrote ‘Jolene’ and ‘I Will Always Love You’ on the same night! But Dolly Parton, the person, is the real shining star.
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A huge proponent of education, the Dollywood Foundation was originally launched to help decrease high school dropout rates in Sevier County, Tennessee (Dolly Parton’s home county). And it worked! The Buddy Program decreased the dropout rate to just 6%. Her Imagination Library provides a free book to children once a month from the time they’re born until they head to school and, as of 2018, over 100 million books had been donated.
Dollywood has an American Eagle Foundation bald eagle sanctuary. She did the song “You Gotta Be My Baby” for the benefit album Red Hot + Country in support of HIV/AIDS charities.
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When wildfires ravaged Tennessee in 2016, she not only organized a telethon that raised $13 million but set up the My People Fund; donating $8.9 million directly to families whose homes were uninhabitable or completely destroyed.
She’s also been very involved in taking care of people’s health. The LeConte Medical Center features both the Dolly Parton Center for Women’s Services AND the Dolly Parton Birthing Unit, plus she donated $500,000 in 2010 when they opened a new hospital.
In 2017, Parton donated $1 million to the Monroe Carell Jr. Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital and just this year, with the COVID-19 pandemic, Parton gave $1 million to help fund research into a cure for the virus at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
If Vanderbilt sounds familiar it’s because they took part in the study of the vaccine developed by Moderna. Moderna reported this week that trials of their vaccine had a 94.5% success rate.
@nestamatthewsDolly Parton. We don’t deserve her.♬ original sound – user8253468881825
Dolly Parton donated $1 million to Vanderbilt for vaccine research.
Vanderbilt researchers were involved in the Moderna trials.
Ergo, Dolly Parton helped cure COVID-19.
Truly, Dolly Parton is the folk hero we don’t deserve.
