Dollywood Foundation
Dollywood Foundation Logo
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| Formation | 1986 |
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| Founder | Dolly Parton |
| Headquarters | Pigeon Forge, Tennessee |
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The Dollywood Foundation, founded by Dolly Parton (born January 19, 1946), an American singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, record producer, actress, author, and businesswoman, began in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Shortly after the opening of the Dollywood theme park in 1986, the Dollywood Foundation was created in April 1988, and began by offering scholarships to local high school students. From there it grew into the Imagination Library, started in 1995, which distributes free books to children monthly, up until the age of 5. The Dollywood Foundation recently grew again into the My People Fund, which started in 2016 after wildfires ripped through Tennessee. The current President of the Dollywood Company is Craig Ross. Today, the foundation continues to support people in need by providing scholarships and awards to those who deserve them and provides support to countless non-profit organizations that aim to improve the quality of life to children and others in need.
The Imagination Library is, a free children's book distribution program started by Dolly Parton in 1995 and, is based at her Dollywood theme park near Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Every child in Sevier County, Tennessee, the area where Parton was born and raised, is eligible to receive a free age-appropriate book each month in the mail until the age of five, regardless of family income. In 2000, the Imagination Library became so popular that Dolly announced that she wanted to make the program available to any community that would partner with her and support it locally. The program has since expanded to over 1600 local communities in the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The program can be implemented in other communities by private organizations, and the Foundation is responsible for the distribution of books in those participating communities. From just a few dozen books to start, to over 80,000,000 mailed to those participation. The foundation serves roughly 1,000,000 children every single month. The program has drastically improved literacy for the children enrolled.
In November 2016, two teenage boys were charged with setting a fire in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, known as the 2016 Great Smoky Mountains wildfires, which killed fourteen people and burned down thousands of homes and businesses. The death toll included two children and a woman who died escaping the flames. Dolly gathered her Dollywood companies (Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede, Dolly Parton’s Lumberjack Adventure, Pirates Voyage, The Dollywood Company) and joined together to establish the ‘My People Fund’ which ultimately donated $1,000 a month to all of the families who lost their homes in the fire. Those collecting charitable donations from the Dolly Foundation, can collect their funds up to six months. Anyone can donate to the My People Fund online or by mail. As the Dolly Foundation website states, any family whose primary residence (renters or homeowners) is a complete loss or is uninhabitable due to the wildfires in Sevier County are eligible for charitable donations. Significant donors to the fund include Verizon, Tanger Outlets, Miley Cyrus’ Happy Hippie Foundation, CoreCivic and The Blalock Company. The My People Fund for has helped about 900 families and raised over 9 million dollars.
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