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| Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 13 | Issue 779 |
| Craig Impelman Speaking | Championship Coaches | Champion's Leadership Library Login | |
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DOLLY PARTON: KINDNESS AND LOVE (PART TWO)
Dolly Parton grew up with eleven brothers and sisters in a two-room cabin in Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains, without electricity or running water. She became a country music legend, selling more than 100 million albums worldwide. Her mother taught her: "I don’t want to ever hear you say that we’re poor. We are rich in kindness and love and understanding."
"Be more concerned with loving than being loved, giving than receiving, being a friend than having a friend." —John Wooden
Dolly built the rest of her life on that kindness, love, and understanding. In 2000 she continued her legendary philanthropy which began in 1986 and would continue until her death in 2026. She constantly sought new ways to help others. Her fully endowed foundation continues to help others daily as she watches from heaven, smiling as always.
2000 Onward Scholarships for Students With a DreamIn 2000, Dolly established the Dolly Parton Scholarship, awarding $15,000 each to five graduating seniors in Sevier County—$75,000 annually toward further education. Applicants were asked to describe a dream they wanted to pursue and explain their plan and commitment to achieving it. The selection considered character and values alongside academic achievement.
2007 Healthcare Close to HomeIn 2007, Dolly and her foundation helped raise $1 million for a birthing unit at a Sevier County hospital. The effort led to the Dolly Parton Center for Women’s Services, bringing support for mothers and newborns to the community where she grew up.
2011 Onward Making Books Accessible to Blind ChildrenBeginning in 2011, the Imagination Library partnered with the American Printing House for the Blind to provide selected books in audio and print-and-braille editions for eligible children who were blind or had low vision. Combining printed words and braille in the same book allowed family members with different reading needs to share the story together.
2016 to 2017 Helping Families Rebuild After the Smoky Mountain WildfiresWhen wildfires devastated Sevier County in November 2016, Dolly established the My People Fund, promising $1,000 a month for six months to families whose primary homes had been destroyed or made uninhabitable. She organized the Smoky Mountains Rise benefit telethon, bringing performers and donors together to help her neighbors.
For five months, families received their $1,000 checks. Then came a surprise: the final payment would be $5,000, bringing the total to $10,000 each for nearly 900 families. The money went directly to households to use as they rebuilt their lives. Dolly called it a "hand up."
"It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely help another without helping himself." —Ralph Waldo Emerson
2017 Supporting Children With CancerIn 2017, Dolly donated $1 million to the pediatric cancer program at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, where her niece Hannah Dennison had been successfully treated for leukemia. Her gift supported treatment and research. Dolly also visited the hospital, bringing personal encouragement to young patients, and participated in programming that reached children in other hospitals.
"Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love." —Lao-Tse
2020 Reading to Children During the PandemicWhen the pandemic closed schools and libraries and disrupted family routines, Dolly launched Goodnight with Dolly, a free, ten-week online bedtime-story series beginning in April 2020. Each week, she read a children’s book, including The Little Engine That Could, Coat of Many Colors, and Last Stop on Market Street. Reading activities and resources for parents accompanied the stories.
2020 to 2022 Funding Medical ResearchIn 2020, Dolly donated $1 million to Vanderbilt’s COVID-19 research effort, helping support work that contributed to the development of Moderna’s vaccine. In 2022, she gave another $1 million for pediatric infectious-disease research at Vanderbilt, supporting efforts to prevent and treat childhood infections, including those affecting children with cancer.
2022 Educational Opportunities for Dollywood EmployeesIn February 2022, Dollywood’s operating partner, Herschend, introduced GROW U, offering employees full tuition, fees, and books for more than 100 approved diploma, degree, and certificate programs. Seasonal, part-time, and full-time employees qualified from their first day of employment. The company-wide initiative covered approximately 11,000 employees across twenty-five attractions, including Dollywood, with additional programs eligible for up to $5,250 annually in assistance.
2022 Recognition for a Lifetime of GivingIn 2022, Dolly received the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, recognizing her work in education, disaster relief, and healthcare. That year, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez selected her for their $100 million Courage and Civility Award, giving her the responsibility of directing the money to charitable causes of her choosing.
"I try to put my money where my heart is," Dolly said, promising to do her best to put the award to good use.
"Real happiness begins where selfishness ends." —John Wooden
Other Causes and Public Expressions of AcceptanceDolly also supported Sevier County Food Ministries, local healthcare, animal welfare, and the American Eagle Foundation’s sanctuary at Dollywood. She participated in breast-cancer fundraising through the 2020 charity single PINK and a 2021 benefit, receiving a Susan G. Komen Promise Award in 2023. Her public expressions of acceptance included support for same-sex marriage in 2009 and transgender people in 2023.
2024 Helping Neighbors After Hurricane HeleneAfter Hurricane Helene devastated communities in 2024, Dolly announced a personal donation of $1 million at a Walmart in Newport, Tennessee. Her businesses and the Dollywood Foundation together contributed another $1 million, bringing the commitment to $2 million. The money went through Mountain Ways, a nonprofit helping flood-affected families, including households whose homes had been destroyed.
A Life of Kindness and LoveBy June 2026, the Imagination Library and its community partners had delivered more than 325 million books across five countries, with another 3.5 million arriving each month—each addressed to a child, each theirs to keep.
Forgive the length—but a life this full of kindness and love deserves the space, and we still left things out. Dolly gave us more than songs to remember; she gave us an example to follow.
"There is a wonderful, mystical law of nature that the three things man craves the most in life—happiness, freedom, and peace—are always attained by giving them to someone else." —John Wooden
Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman
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"I will not permit any man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him." Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) "To get rid of an enemy, one must love him." Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) "A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." William James (1842–1910) "Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." Mark Twain (1835–1910) "A rattlesnake, if cornered, will become so angry it will bite itself. That is exactly what the harboring of hate and resentment against others is — a biting of oneself. We think that we are harming others in holding these spites and hates, but the deeper harm is to ourselves." E. Stanley Jones (1884–1973) "Outwitted Edwin Markham (1852–1940)
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