What You Should Know About Dolly Parton
What she’s doing that matters more than her music ever will
Most people know who Dolly Parton is because of her musical career. Many have also visited or at least heard about Dollywood, the theme park bearing her name and partly owned by her. Sadly, her most impressive and life-changing work is not as well known.
In 1995, Dolly founded the Imagination Library. At that time, it only served children in her home county in Tennessee. Her idea was to send a free book every month to preschoolers to help them develop a love of reading. Today, that program spans five countries and gifts over 1 million free books each month to children around the world. (Source: Imagination Library website)
Dolly has also done remarkable things to help older children. In 1991 she started the Buddy Program to address the fact that over 30% of Sevier County’s students were dropping out before finishing high school. As her website explains,
In 1991, seventh and eighth grade students were invited to a special assembly... Dolly told the students that day she wanted each of them to choose a Buddy and if they didn’t have a Buddy she would find one for them. She went on make a very special announcement: she offered to personally give $500 to each and every student in the seventh and eighth…
