Dolly Parton’s music gave her the financial resources to take care of her people in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and helped to raise that region of the Smoky Mountains out of poverty, wrote Garrett Toay from Stockton, Illinois on his X account. She helped his family too, he says, through her charitable organization, Imagination Library.
“In our local area, she works with local banks that help facilitate the project, but basically for any child from the age of birth to the age of five, once they start school, you sign up for the program, and you get a free book every month until you turn age five and start kindergarten or preschool. She did that to honor her father, who didn’t know how to read. She’s bought millions of books for children. My children participated in it, and it’s available to anybody. And if it’s not available in your community, and you might be a community leader or know somebody at a bank to help facilitate the program, they donate a ton of money to these programs to help teach children to read.”
He’s not involved personally but has seen the benefits of the program.
“Well, I’m not involved personally, we just benefited from it for my children. I think my wife had heard about it online. My wife, Bridget, is a huge Dolly Parton fan. In fact, on vacation this year, we went to Pigeon Forge and went to Dollywood. That was our vacation this year. She’s been a huge fan, so she had heard about it somewhere online. I was not familiar with it at all until my wife had mentioned it to me. Well, it got them reading at an early age. Going to the library is one thing, and having a library card – yes that’s free – but you have to return that book. The fact that she’s giving you a book with no obligation whatsoever—I had a friend on X made the comment, his daughter’s book is still sitting on the shelf – it’s something that they own and helps create reading as a priority.”
Toay said Parton made a huge impact on millions of people.
“She lived her life with a big heart and strong hands, and if we had more of that today, we’d all be in a lot better place than where we are. When she climbed the ladder, she made sure that she didn’t lift it up behind her. She let others in her area climb that ladder as well.”
Over the last 31 years, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has gifted more than 330 million books across five different countries.