On September 25, Dolly Parton fans can celebrate the star by helping one of the causes closest to her heart.
Dolly Parton gave the world an extraordinary collection of songs, plenty of rhinestones, and enough memorable one-liners to fill a book. But on September 25, people around the world are being invited to celebrate something else she gave away: millions and millions of books.
The first annual Give Like Dolly Day will honor Parton's lifelong commitment to helping children through her beloved Imagination Library, encouraging people to support the local programs that continue her work.
And naturally, the date is perfect. September 25 is 9/25 -- a playful nod to 9 to 5, one of Dolly's most famous songs and movies.
From one father's story to millions of books
Parton founded the Imagination Library in 1995 in honor of her father, Robert Lee Parton, who was unable to read or write. What began in her home county in East Tennessee grew into the world's largest early-childhood book-gifting program, with local partners now operating in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland.
Children enrolled in the program receive a free, carefully selected book through the mail every month from birth until the age of 5, giving them their own little library before they've even started school.
For Dolly, that mattered. She understood that putting a book into a child's hands could open a door far beyond the pages in front of them. As she once put it: “If you can read, you can do anything, dream anything and be anything.”
How to Give Like Dolly
On September 25, the Dollywood Foundation is encouraging people to support their local Imagination Library partner, help establish a program if their community doesn't yet have one, or support another local organization working with children.
It doesn't have to involve a Dolly-sized donation either. Local partners do much of the fundraising that enables books to keep arriving through children's letterboxes, so even small contributions can become part of something much bigger.
And you'll no doubt agree, it seems the perfect way to celebrate Dolly Parton. For all the extraordinary things she achieved in her lifetime, she understood that sometimes changing a child's future can begin with something wonderfully simple: making sure there's a book waiting for them at home.
