Dolly Parton’s most charitable moments in recent years
Dolly Parton must work longer than 9 to 5 to balance her music and impress charitable efforts.
In 2022, Parton was awarded the Carnegie Medal for Philanthropy for decades of good work, and she gushed about how “honored” she was to receive the recognition. Her good deeds include setting up the Dollywood Foundation and donating funds to vaccine research after the 2020 coronavirus pandemic outbreak.
“What an honor just to be here. “I’m really honored and proud to be around these great people and do all these great things to help the world, as they say,” Parton said in October 2022. accepting the medal. “I just give from my heart. I never know what I’m going to do or why I’m going to do it. I just see a need, and if I can fill it, I will.”
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The Grammy winner continued, “If I can do my little part in this world, that’s all I ask in this world. I am very proud of the Imagination Library, so it is very dear to me. I just hope I can continue to do good things.”
Scroll down to see some of Parton’s most charitable moments:
1988 year
Parton founded her non-profit organization, The Dollywood Foundation, in April 1988 in Sevierville, Tennessee. The goal was to increase the number of local high school graduates and reduce dropout rates.
The “Jolene” singer also created the Buddy Program, which gave $500 to every seventh- through eighth-grader in the area who graduated from high school. The start was a success with a dropout rate of 35 percent to just 6 percent, according to website of the foundation.
1991 year
As part of her successful Dollywood theme park, Parton opened Eagle Mountain Reserve. The space is 30,000 square feet and is managed by the American Eagle Foundations shelters to help keep bald eagles safe.
1995 year
The musician expanded The Dollywood Foundation from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The program provides children under the age of five with a book each month to help with literacy and further education in all regions of the country — and abroad. In 2018, Parton reached a major milestone when Imagination Library released its 100 millionth book.
2000 year
The foundation has begun awarding five $15,000 scholarships, named the Dolly Parton Scholarships, to Sevier County high school seniors to help students continue their education at an accredited university. “The scholarships are for students who have a dream they want to pursue and who can successfully communicate their plan and commitment to pursue their dream,” the website says.
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2007 year
Parton once again gave back to her community by helping raise $500,000 for Sevier County Hospital with a benefit concert. Dollywood and Parton’s Dixie Stampede dinner theater each pledged $250,000, making the fundraising total $1 million. The funds were used to open LeConte Medical Center, a hospital and cancer center, in 2010.
2016 year
After the devastating wildfires in Tennessee that engulfed the Great Smoky Mountains, Parton created the My People Fund under the umbrella of her Dollywood Foundation. The fund distributed $1,000 per month for six months to families who lost their primary residence. In 2017, the foundation revealed that over $12 million was raised and distributed to those in need over the past year.
2017 year
After releasing his children’s album, I believe in youPatron donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital. The donation was made in honor of Parton’s niece, who was being treated at the hospital for leukemia.
2020 year
In the spring of 2020, Parton was one of many celebrities who constructed a spatula to benefit the Williams-Sonoma Dinnerware Collection. Parton’s design helped raise money for the company’s annual Cook for a Cause campaign.
The same year, the actress made headlines by donating money to research into a coronavirus vaccine following the outbreak of the global pandemic. Parton gave $1 million to help Moderna’s vaccine a study that was reportedly 94.5 percent effective against the virus.
“I’m just happy that whatever I do can help someone,” Parton said today at that time. “When I donated money to the COVID fund, I just wanted it to be beneficial. Obviously so. Let’s hope we find a cure soon.”
2021 year
When Humphreys County in Tennessee experienced unprecedented flooding and damage, Parton stepped up and raised $700,000 to get people back on their feet. Parton’s Dollywood and Pigeon Forge lunchtime shows have donated a portion of ticket sales for two days in October 2021 to benefit the United Way of Humphreys County.
Parton’s late friend Loretta Lynn was responsible for the choice of charity. “After the Sevier County wildfires in 2016, Loretta was one of the first to offer what she could” – says Parton’s statement. “It meant so much to me that Loretta — and so many people — were willing to give their all. This was just one small way to help Loretta’s people for all they did to help my people.”
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Earlier that year, Parton revealed that she used some of the royalties from Cover by Whitney Houston her song “I Will Always Love You” to give back to the black neighborhoods of Nashville. “It was mostly just black families and people,” Parton said in August 2021. Watch what’s happening live with Andy Cohensharing that she has invested in an office complex in the area. “It was a whole shopping center. And I thought, ‘This is the perfect place for me, considering it was Whitney.’
She continued: “I just thought, ‘That was great.’ I’m going to be here with her people, who are also my people.’ And so I just love the fact that I spent that money on the complex. And I’m thinking, This is the house that Whitney built.
2022 year
Parton announced this in February 2022 Dollywood — through its operating partner Herschend Enterprises — will begin covering 100 percent of tuition, fees and book costs for any employee attending college for further education.
Four months later “Here You Come Again” singer. donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center to help research pediatric infectious diseases.
2024 year
Parton in person promised a million dollars The Mountain Ways Foundation, which helped East Tennessee communities affected by Hurricane Helen. Her donations will be matched by her companies, including the Dollywood Foundation and Dollywood Parks and Resorts. The East Tennessee native shared that she will be making the donation in partnership with Walmart.
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