Between rebuilding Tennessee and making my Spotify playlists so damn good, Dolly Parton has become the unofficial Queen of Good Works.
Today, the country music star heads to Washington to deliver her 100 millionth book donation from her Imagination Library to the Library of Congress. Founded by Parton, the Imagination Library sends free books to children from birth until their start of school, regardless of their parents' income.
Parton started the program in 1995. Less than 10 years later, Parton had donated a million books. After the singer launched operations in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, donations started running into the tens of millions.
NEWS: Dolly Parton's Imagination Library joins with Library of Congress for a monthly reading program for young readers: https://t.co/7WUVsyhY6K pic.twitter.com/zdTkAor9zo — Library of Congress (@librarycongress) February 27, 2018
Parton says her father's illiteracy initially inspired her to take action.
The singer, whose fan base is a mix of Republicans and Democrats, has studiously avoided politics. Parton has nonetheless gained notoriety for her extensive philanthropic efforts.
After fires destroyed homes in Tennessee in 2016, Dolly Parton's My People foundation gave more than $8 million to people affected. Survivors received an average of $10,000 from the charity Participants reported feeling grateful to receive money from the foundation without any stigma or strings attached.
Video of the Library of Congress ceremony will be available here and imprinted in my heart.
sidus_3 on February 28th, 2018 at 05:24 UTC »
Her foundation selects excellent children's books. They are enjoyable and well illustrated. I also generally love the messages in the books. My favorite thing is that most of the books have a flap in the back of the book with talking points you can use before, during and after reading the book with your child.
We don't receive books from her foundation, but I do buy used copies of the books from eBay.
OldDrunkGhost on February 28th, 2018 at 05:19 UTC »
Dolly is a legit American hero. She’s not only an amazing musician, she’s a really great person who acts as a yardstick by which we should all judge ourselves.
I wish more people held themselves to the standard that Dolly does.
Betterwithcheddar on February 28th, 2018 at 04:20 UTC »
My kids have received her books over a dozen times. We are very grateful. Wonderful program.