Dolly Parton founded the Dollywood Foundation in 1988 to help children in her hometown succeed in school. At first, the foundation worked to lower the high school dropout rate. In the 1990s, Parton introduced the Buddy Program. She promised 7th and 8th-grade students $500 if they graduated from high school. The programme was very successful. It reduced the dropout rate from 35% to 6%. It also encouraged the community to give students more support.
In 1995, the foundation started Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Sevier County, Tennessee. The programme sends free books each month to children under the age of five. Its goal is to help young children enjoy reading from an early age. What began as a local project later became an international programme. Publishers, local groups, and distribution centres helped it grow. Today, it remains the foundation’s best-known programme.
The foundation also helps students by offering scholarships. Every year, it gives five scholarships to high school seniors in the county. These awards help them continue their education at accredited universities. One of the main awards, the Dolly Parton Scholarship, gives $15,000 to selected students. The scholarship goes to students who have clear goals and the determination to achieve them.
The foundation also manages additional scholarships. In 2016, Parton provided a $30,000 scholarship to a young girl in Arkansas. She did this to celebrate the Imagination Library reaching one million children each month. The scholarship will grow to $60,000 when the student turns 18 in 2032.
In November 2016, severe wildfires destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Sevier County. Parton responded by creating the My People Fund. Through this programme, the foundation gave $1,000 each month for six months to families who lost their main homes. The team organised and launched the fund in just two weeks. By May 2017, it had raised and distributed more than $12 million. The foundation also used extra funds to provide one-time scholarships to high school seniors whose homes the fires had destroyed.
Source: https://imaginationlibrary.com/the-dollywood-foundation/