Dolly Parton could have kept luxury homes and endless bank accounts. She chose something else.
In Sevier, Tennessee, her home county, she saw children dropping out of high school and didn’t write a speech: she promised 500 dollars to every seventh- and eighth-grade student who graduated. The dropout rate fell from 35% to 6%. A year later, she gave scholarships so that any young person in the county could study at Hiwassee College, because to her, education should never have come with a price tag.
Her Imagination Library began by sending free books to babies in her town and now reaches families in several countries. She helped save injured bald eagles, donated one million dollars that accelerated Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, and never waited for Congress to applaud her before doing it. She simply saw people who needed a hand and extended hers, again and again.
