Singer Dolly Parton has announced that she and her companies will partner with Walmart to provide donations to help those affected by the devastating Hurricane Helen.
Parton made the announcement at a Walmart store in Newport, Tennessee, the Hollywood Reporter reports.
"I'm sure many of you are wondering where I've been," Parton said at the event. "Everybody's saying, 'Where's Dolly? Well, I've been like everybody else, trying to absorb everything that's going on, trying to figure out all the best ways to do this."
Parton, who was born in Sevierville, Tennessee, said:
"I look around and think, these are my mountains, these are my valleys. These are my rivers ... These are my people and this is my home."
"Remember when we had fires, everyone pitched in, tried to do everything they could. And so I really think this is the time for me to step up again so that we can all step up and do what we can. I wanted to announce today that I am personally donating a million dollars today from myself, just from my own bank account, but there is a lot more to do and we are trying to find other ways to raise more funds," the singer added.
Parton said that through her business ventures - Dollywood Parks & Resorts, Dolly Parton's Stampede and Pirates Voyage Dinner & Show and the Dollywood Foundation - a donation of another $1 million will be made, which will be transferred to the nonprofit Mountain Ways Foundation.
"But also with my companies at Dollywood and all the people I'm associated with... we've added another million dollars to that $1 million, so we're starting with a good little amount and like I said, we're trying to find new ways to make money because, you know, it's going to take a lot of money. And it's going to take a long time. There's still so much to do. I love you," Parton said.
The donation is another philanthropic effort by the legendary country singer. In 2020. Parton donated $1 million to vaccine research at Vanderbilt University, which helped fund Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine.
In 2021, she made a donation to help those affected by the Middle Tennessee floods, and in 2016, she launched the My People Fund, which assisted families affected by the Tennessee wildfires in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. In 1995, Parton also started the Imagination Library program, a book-giving program that mails books to children from birth to age 5, regardless of their family's income. | BGNES
