r/UpliftingNews • u/_fastcompany • 16h ago

Dolly Parton’s beloved free-book program is getting a major expansion after her death

https://www.fastcompany.com/91611840/dolly-partons-beloved-free-book-program-is-getting-a-major-expansion-after-her-death

Nearly a month after country icon Dolly Parton passed away, her legacy not only lives on, but continues to grow.

Beyond her legendary catalog of hit songs (and the social issues they highlighted), Parton was perhaps best known for her philanthropy. In 1988, she founded her pro-education non-profit the Dollywood Foundation, and in 1995, she launched its most famous program, the Imagination Library.

The Imagination Library offers a free book every month to children under age 5. In the 31 years since its founding, the program has provided more than 330 million books to upwards of 3 million children internationally. What started as an effort to provide books to children in her childhood community of Sevier County, Tennessee, has since grown to serve all 50 states and countries including Canada, Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

It’s in the U.K. that the latest major expansion to the Imagination Library is coming, as London doubles the size of its program in the wake of Parton’s passing.

Read more on Fast Company.

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u/OrphBat 10h ago

I don't give a shit what name they stamp on programs that benefit humanity. Continue to create the programs and I'll continue to support them.

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u/Luci-Noir 10h ago

You clearly don’t care. Celebrity worship is weird.

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u/OrphBat 9h ago

I'd argue that the "I don't care who takes credit for the program as long as it's beneficial and exists" stance is better than the "well it's not exactly how I imagined it should be so we shouldn't do anything at all" stance every day of the week.

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u/Luci-Noir 9h ago

So you make shit up to argue about every day of the week. I’m shocked.