28/08/2026
This is beautiful!
Long before Dolly Parton gave hundreds of millions of books to children, she tried a remarkably simple experiment in her Tennessee hometown. 💛
In 1988, the high-school dropout rate in Sevier County was reportedly around 35%. Parton, who grew up there, wanted to give local students another reason to stay in school.
Through her Dollywood Foundation, she launched the Buddy Program for seventh- and eighth-graders.
The idea was clever: each student chose a “buddy.” Parton promised that if both students successfully graduated from high school, each would receive $500. The incentive wasn't only financial—it encouraged friends to keep each other motivated and accountable.
The results were dramatic.
According to the Dollywood Foundation, the county's dropout rate subsequently fell to about 6%, and the Buddy Program is credited as one initiative that contributed to the improvement. It's important not to attribute the entire 29-point decline to one program alone, but its success helped shape Parton's growing commitment to education.
A few years later, in 1995, she launched the Imagination Library in the same county. Today, that program has mailed more than 300 million free books to young children worldwide.
It started with a lesson Dolly returned to throughout her philanthropy:
Sometimes changing someone's future begins by showing them you believe they have one. ❤️📚
Sources: Dollywood Foundation; Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library; Library of Congress; Tennessee educational reporting.
