#ThisIsAppalachia: Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton |
[embed]https://youtu.be/ZV3RABYfl9I[/embed]
Video by Jim ClementBelow are the lyrics from the song Jim wrote for this special Women's History Month edition of #ThisIsAppalachia
Fire broke out in the mountains, many lives and homes destroyed. A hundred year virus came along now so many unemployed. An angel out of Nashville opened up Her big ole heart, and a balm for what ails us she did impart. She’s the queen of Appalachia, the jewel of Tennessee. Compassion, love, and kindness are her legacy. Many kids in the valley needed books to fuel their dreams, Misfits all around us needed help with self esteem . That angel came along again with a rainbow in her hands and said, “Take this for life never gives you more than you can withstand.” She’s the queen of Appalachia, the jewel of Tennessee. Compassion, love, and kindness are her legacy.
Don't Let Anybody Hold You Down
By Walter Davis and Kathy Johnson
In 2019, Dolly Parton was the first country music star to be honored as MusiCares Person of the Year. As she said at the time, “I truly am honored to be … it’s a long long way from hills of East Tennessee to the Hollywood Hills, but it has been a wonderful journey.”Dolly s very much a person defined by place. What is true of her art is true of her generosity and giving. She has widened her giving from her own hometown to a vastly wider circle. The generosity that came out of her Tennessee childhood encompassing the hollers of Sevier County now influences and reaches into inner city neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. and First Nations communities in Canada. Most recently, Dollyplayed a role in developing the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine through her $1 million gift to research at Vanderbilt.
1988 - The Dollywood Foundation
Dolly originally launched the organization in her home county with the goal of decreasing high school dropout rates. She started the Buddy Program, in which she gave $500 to every seventh and eighth grader who finished high school. According to the organization, the initiative was successful. The dropout rate declined from 35 percent to just 6 percent. Other scholarship initiatives would follow.Her music and her heart are genuine when it comes to her philanthropy and to a sense of justice. Quoted in Look to the Stars in 2019, Dolly said, "You should be allowed to do a job and do your job. If you do it well, you should be appreciated, respected, and admired. I’m proud that I’ve done well in this business. I try to live that as a woman. I try to let it stand in the songs I’ve written through the years. Long before there was ever a movement, I was moving in it and talking about it. Even my first album was called ‘Just Because I’m A Woman’. It was based on that and my mistakes are no worse than yours and just because I’m a woman. I should get the same chance.”“And we did the ‘9 to 5’ song, so I was trying to be an example,” Parton continues. “I try to live it and be it rather than just preaching it, but everybody needs to do it their own way. So just get out there and not let anybody hold you down.”She has shown her support for the Black and LGBTQ+ communities with similar statements.Her sense of place was also shown in the beginning in 1991 with the Eagle Mountain Sanctuary at Dollywood; the 30,000-square-foot aviary managed by the American Eagle Foundation sheltering the largest collection of “non-releasable” bald eagles. Parton's efforts to preserve the bald eagle earned her the Partnership Award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2003.But it is literacy and love of learning that has drawn the most attention to Dolly’s charities. In 1995, she launched The Dollywood Foundation's Imagination Library which began sending one book per month to each enrolled child in Sevier County from birth until their first year of school. By end of November 2020, over 148 million free books had been given to children in a growing number of communities at home and abroad.
Her efforts also stimulated Affiliates – D.C. Public Library
By 2018, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library was mailing free high-quality and age-appropriate books each month to more than 28,000 children in the District of Columbia. . The D.C. Public Library’s partnership with D.C. Books from Birth initiative, incorporated Sing, Talk and Read (STAR) videos, toolkits, and a campaign aimed at getting parents to engage with their young children. D.C. enrollment in the program topped 65 percent of the eligible children and has climbed even higher in key focus neighborhoods.In Ontario, Canada, the program is promoting reading and literacy amongst First Nations children. The partnership between Ontario and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library provides First Nations children living on reserves (called reservations in the U.S.) with free books to foster a love of reading and help them reach their full potential. Indira Naidoo-Harris, Ontario Government Minister Responsible for Early Years and Child said, “This remarkable program helps to foster an important love of books in children. I want to thank Dolly Parton and her Imagination Library for working with us to give children the incredible gift of reading. Many Ontario kids up to age 5 will now benefit from receiving a new book every month and their reading adventures will help them get the best possible start in life.” There is now a Dollywood Foundation of Canada reaching 36 First Nations communities, and 52 percent of the Canadian books are sent to First Nation, Metis and Inuit communities. “The simple gift of a book can have an amazing impact on the lives of children and their families.”Dolly’s other efforts have supported the local Sevier County hospital, a cancer center, and the Dolly Parton Center for Women's Services.When the hills around Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg burned in wildfires, Dolly brought together friends in The Smoky Mountains Rise: A Benefit for the My People Fund, raising more than $13 million followed by the My People Fund providing $1,000 a month for six months to families whose homes were completely destroyed amid the natural disaster. The fund also donated around $8.9 million to those in need.Dolly continues to do new things that better people’s lives -- sometimes far from Sevier County. In 2017 – following the release of her “I Believe in You” children's album, Parton donated $1 million to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in honor of her niece, who was treated for leukemia at that hospital.You can be a partner with Dolly in the Imagination Library. How To Start A Program gives ways to be involved. You can join Dolly on the journey to get more books in to the hands of children across the U.S.
