DOLLYWOOD ANNOUNCES CARE MORE INITIATIVE TO HONOR DOLLY’S LEGACY OF GIVING

PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. (Wednesday, January 19, 2022) — To celebrate Dolly Parton’s birthday, Dollywood officials today announced the creation of the Care More Initiative in honor of her lifelong legacy of philanthropy and finding ways to put others first. 

As part of the program, Dollywood Parks & Resorts employees—or hosts—are encouraged to serve at the nonprofit of their choice to thank and recognize Parton for the many ways she contributes to others each day. The day of service—which may take place at any nonprofit—will become an annual tradition for Dollywood hosts. Park officials hope people around the world are inspired by Parton’s many gestures of service and will themselves choose a nonprofit they can serve as well.

Hosts at Dollywood theme park, Dollywood’s Splash Country, Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort and Spa, and Dollywood’s Smoky Mountain Cabins who take part in the Care More Initiative will receive a day off with pay in order to fulfill their nonprofit service.

“Dolly is a dreamer and because of that she is an amazing person to work with,” said Eugene Naughton, Dollywood President. “It’s virtually impossible to describe her in one word, but I think if you asked people around the world, one of the most frequent answers you would hear is ‘giving.’ You would hear hundreds of different answers—talented, inspiring, loving, creative, caring—but I think giving is the one of which I think she would be most proud.”

“This initiative is our way to give back to her; it is our way to thank her for continuing to inspire people to think outside of themselves and to look for how they can be of service to others. We know our hosts are inspired by her every single day, but we hope others outside of our Dollywood family take the time to find how they can help in their own communities.”

Among Parton’s philanthropic efforts, The Dollywood Foundation and its Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, are certainly the most well-known. Since launching in 1995, the Imagination Library has provided more than 180 million books around the world to registered children from birth to age five. Each month the Imagination Library delivers 1.8 million age-appropriate books to children in communities throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, The Republic of Ireland and Australia. Her vision for the program was to create a lifelong love of reading, inspiring them to dream and reach great heights.

In 2016, The Dollywood Foundation led Parton’s efforts to assist families who lost their homes during the devastating wildfires which swept through her home county. The monies raised from Parton’s Smoky Mountains Rise telethon helped The Foundation’s My People Fund distribute more than $12 million in direct assistance to more than 900 families in Sevier County, Tennessee.

Other philanthropic efforts include the monies Parton helped raise to create LeConte Medical Center in Sevier County, a $1 million donation to Vanderbilt University Children’s Hospital in 2017, as well as a $1 million donation to help fund COVID-19 vaccine research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Parton read bedtime stories from the Imagination Library to children through a 10-week virtual series. Most recently, she, along with her Smoky Mountain businesses, raised $700,000 in support of the catastrophic flooding that took place in Humphreys County, Tennessee in late August.

For more information about Dollywood, please visit Dollywood.com.

About The Dollywood Company:   A highly-awarded and widely-recognized leader in the amusement industry, The Dollywood Company consists of the 160-acre Dollywood theme park; the 35-acre Dollywood’s Splash Country; Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort and Spa; and Dollywood’s Smoky Mountain Cabins. As unique as its namesake and owner Dolly Parton, Dollywood is the 2010 Applause Award winner, the theme park industry’s highest accolade; winner of more than 40 Golden Ticket Awards; and recipient of 27 Brass Ring Awards for Live Entertainment (more than any other theme park in the world). The park is located near Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and has been named a top-three U.S. theme park by USA Today on multiple occasions and a top-10 world theme park by TripAdvisor. Dollywood is open mid-March through early January and offers rides and attractions, shows and crafters authentic to the East Tennessee region. Dollywood’s Splash Country, recognized by the Travel Channel and TripAdvisor as one of the country’s most beautiful water parks, operates from mid-May to Labor Day. Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort and Spa, a favorite of USA Today voters and TripAdvisor reviewers, provides guests with spectacular mountain views and family-friendly amenities next door to Dollywood theme park and Dollywood’s Splash Country. Dollywood’s Smoky Mountain Cabins offers luxurious cabin accommodations overlooking Dollywood. For more information, call 1-800-DOLLYWOOD or visit dollywood.com. Operating days and hours vary. 

Media Contacts:                  

Pete Owens: Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations, (865) 428-9486, (865) 755-7972 or powens@dollywood.com  

Wes Ramey: Public Relations Director, (865) 428-9484, (865) 640-3805 or wramey@dollywood.com

Ellen Liston: Public Relations Manager, (865) 428-9629, (865) 919-7001 or eliston@dollywood.com

Amber Davis: Digital Publicist, (865) 428-9601, (865) 591-1002 or aldavis@dollywood.com

Jennifer Webb: Publicist, (865) 428-9602, (865) 323-7584 or jwebb@dollywood.com

For B-roll, photography and more information, visit the Dollywood Media Room at http://www.dollywood.com/Media/Media-Room