A Timeline of Dolly Parton’s Good Deeds

1988 – The Dollywood Basis

Parton initially launched the group in her dwelling county of Sevier County, Tennessee, with the objective of reducing highschool drop out charges. She then began the Buddy Program, through which Parton gave $500 to each seventh and eighth grader who completed highschool. Based on the group, the initiative was profitable and the dropout charge declined from 35 % to only 6 %.

1989 – $500 scholarship

Parton provided a $500 scholarship to each pupil in Sevier County who wished to attend Hiwassee Faculty.

1991 – Eagle Mountain Sanctuary at Dollywood

The 30,000-square-foot aviary managed by the American Eagle Basis shelters the most important assortment of “non-releasable” bald eagles. Parton’s efforts to protect the bald eagle earned her the Partnership Award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2003.

1995 – Creativeness Library

The Dollywood Basis’s Creativeness Library started sending one e-book per thirty days to every enrolled baby in Sevier County from start till their first yr of faculty. The library was based in honor of Parton’s father, who was unable to learn.

2000 – The Dolly Parton Scholarship

Yearly, the $15,000 school scholarship is obtainable to 5 highschool seniors in Sevier County, Tennessee. Based on the Dollywood Basis, the scholarship is awarded to those that “have a dream they wish to pursue and who can successfully communicate their plan and commitment to realize their dreams.”

2007 – Profit live performance for brand new Sevier County hospital

The live performance raised $500,000, and each Dollywood and Parton’s Dixie Stampede dinner theater pledged $250,000 every to the venture, for a complete of $1 million. LeConte Medical Heart, the brand new hospital and most cancers middle in Sevier County, opened in 2010 and includes a 30,000-square-foot Dolly Parton Heart for Girls’s Companies.

2016 – Telethon after devastating East Tennessee wildfires

The Smoky Mountains Rise: A Profit for the My Folks Fund, which aimed to assist residents hit hardest in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, raised greater than $13 million. Chris Stapleton, Chris Younger, Kenny Rogers, Lauren Alaina, Alison Krauss, Reba McEntire, Cyndi Lauper and extra appeared on the occasion.

2016 – My Folks Fund

To proceed her wildfire reduction efforts, Parton launched the My Folks Fund, which offered $1,000 a month for six months to households whose properties have been utterly destroyed amid the pure catastrophe. The fund additionally donated round $8.9 million to these in want. The initiative nonetheless helps residents pay for hire and utilities, plus meals and psychological well being sources.

2016 –  Particular Benefit Scholarship

Parton awarded a $30,000 scholarship to two-year-old Evey Johns in celebration of Creativeness Library’s accomplishment of transport out a million books per thirty days.

2017 – $1 million donation

Following the discharge of her I Imagine in You kids’s album, Parton donated $1 million to the Monroe Carell Jr. Kids’s Hospital at Vanderbilt College Medical Heart in honor of her niece, who was handled for leukemia at that hospital.

2020 – Coronavirus efforts

Parton donated $1 million to coronavirus analysis at Vanderbilt College, which helped fund Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. Moderna’s vaccine is 94.5% efficient towards coronavirus, based on early knowledge.

2021 – Center Tennessee Flooding Reduction

Parton and her Smoky Mountain companies raised $700,000 to assist residents impacted by the catastrophic flooding in Center Tennessee in October 2021. Parton selected United Manner of Humphreys County to obtain and distribute the donation on the suggestion of her pal and fellow nation music legend Loretta Lynn.

“After the Sevier County wildfires in 2016, Loretta was one of the first who reached out to offer anything she could,” Parton stated in a assertion on the time. “It meant so much to me that Loretta — and so many folks — were ready to give in any way they could. This was just one small way I could help Loretta’s people for all they did to help my people. I hope that this money can be put to good use to help the people of Middle Tennessee with what they need during their recovery.”

2022 – Dollywood Training Protection

The Dollywood Co. introduced in February 2022 that it’ll cowl 100% of tuition, charges and books for any worker who’s furthering their schooling.

The funding in worker schooling was made by way of Herschend Enterprises, Dollywood’s working associate. This system is out there to all seasonal, part-time and full-time workers at Dollywood Parks & Resorts. Herschuend’s GROW U. provides greater than 100 totally funded diploma, diploma and certificates applications with 30 studying companions in areas together with enterprise administration and management, culinary, finance, expertise and advertising and marketing. The corporate additionally offers partial funding — as much as $5,250 per yr — for 150 extra applications in fields together with hospitality, engineering, human sources and extra. Workers can enroll in this system on their first day of employment.

2022 – Pediatric Infectious Illness Analysis Donation

Parton made yet one more $1 million donation to Vanderbilt College Medical Heart in Nashville in June 2022, this time aimed toward serving to pediatric infectious illness analysis.

The donation will support Vanderbilt’s Division of Pediatric Infectious Ailments to proceed its effort in understanding how viruses and micro organism trigger illness, understanding and stopping resistance to antibiotics, diagnosing and treating infections in kids with most cancers and extra.

2022 – Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy

Parton obtained the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2022. The award, offered by the worldwide household of Carnegie establishments to honor revolutionary philanthropists, debuted in 2001 and is generally awarded each two years. It was not issued in 2021 as a result of pandemic.