Dolly Parton: A Life Well Gived
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“But will I still get my books??” my four-year-old asked with big hazel eyes.
“Yes, sweetheart. I’m sure you’ll still get your books. Dolly Parton would want you to keep reading.”
And thankfully an article from The Hill confirmed we, along with one in six American children under the age of five, will still get the books. A spokesperson from the Dollywood Company confirmed that the Imagination Library will continue, despite Dolly Parton’s passing late last month.
Dolly Parton, though intentionally not outspoken on many of the controversial issues the Consistent Life Ethic often covers, embraced the Consistent Life Ethic quite well. She also had a long history of living by the old adage “Think globally, act locally.”
Parton started her philanthropic work back in 1988, when she launched the Dollywood Foundation in her home of Sevier County, Tennessee. She started the Buddy Program with the goal of lowering the high school dropout rate. The Buddy Program promised $500 to every 7th and 8th grader who graduated high school. This program caused the dropout rate to go from 35% to 6%.
In 2000, Parton started the Dolly Parton Scholarship, which provided a $15,000 college scholarship to five high school seniors from Sevier County. In 2007, she performed a benefit concert to build a new hospital in Sevier County. The concert raised $500,000. Dollywood and Parton’s Dixie Stampede dinner theater contributed another $250,000 each, for a total of $1 million given to the hospital.
More recently, Parton raised money or donated from her foundation, businesses, and even her own funds to provide relief from various natural disasters, including the 2016 East Tennessee wildfires, the 2021 Tennessee flooding, and 2024’s Hurricane Helene. One of Parton’s most notable contributions was to Vanderbilt University in 2020, which helped with the development of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine.
In 1995, Parton started my personal favorite of her charitable programs—the Imagination Library. The Imagination Library started sending free monthly books to children from birth until they turn five. This was founded in honor of Parton’s father, whom she described as the most intelligent person she knew but who never learned to read.
The Imagination Library so far has gifted 332,411,218 books and counting, a good many of which are currently on my kids’ bookshelves (and our living room floor, our minivan, diaper bag, hidden in my bed covers, etc).
Research across five countries shows Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library significantly strengthens children’s early literacy skills and family reading habits. A study surveyed more than 86,000 caregivers across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia. Data on children who were already enrolled in the Imagination Library were compared to data on children who were not yet enrolled.
The study showed that after receiving just 10 books, children in the Library program were more likely to demonstrate stronger emerging literacy skills. Children enrolled were 9 times more likely to be read to four or more days per week, 9 times more likely to be interested in books, and 15 times more likely to join in during shared book reading. Caregivers whose children were involved in the program were 6 times more likely to count images in books, 7 times more likely to describe the images, and 4 times more likely to let the child hold the book.
I know the program has helped my children develop their early literacy skills. One of the first books we ever received came when my oldest and I both had the flu. We spent hours on the couch reading and snuggling. Now my second child is learning to love books the same way, and it is so nice to know the Imagination Library will be there every step of the way.
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