KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - Without a doubt, Dolly Parton’s legacy will leave a massive impact on the world of country music, but her legacy stretches far beyond the world of entertainment. Dolly’s death, announced by her family Tuesday, just a year after one of her most major philanthropic enterprises, her Imagination Library, celebrated a major milestone.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book deliver program that sends free books to children from birth to age 5, no matter a family’s income. It launched in 1995, and since then has celebrated milestone after milestone.
The program’s website outlines how the Imagination Library took off, marking its 30th anniversary in 2025:
- 1995 – Through The Dollywood Foundation, Dolly Parton founded and launched her Imagination Library in Sevier County, Tennessee
- 2000 –Imagination Library began a national replication effort
- 2002 – Native American communities added
- 2004 –Imagination Library goes statewide in Tennessee
- 2005 – International Book Committee formed
- 2006 –Imagination Library Opens in Canada
- 2007 –Imagination Library Expands to United Kingdom
- 2010 – Dolly Presents 25 millionth Imagination Library book
- 2011 – Audio and braille books added
- 2013 – Dolly’s Imagination Library expands to Australia
- 2015 – Dolly Parton license plates began pre-sales in Tennessee
- 2016 –Imagination Library begins sending one million books a month
- 2017 – Official Dolly Parton license plate available in Tennessee benefiting Imagination Library
- 2018 – 100th million book dedicated to the Library of Congress
- 2019 – Dolly’s Imagination Library expands to the Republic Of Ireland
- 2020 – Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library gifts its 150 millionth book
- 2021 – The Library of Congress awards the Imagination Library with the $150k David M. Rubenstein Prize
- 2022 – 2 Million Books mailed each month globally
- 2023 – The Imagination Library gifts its 200 millionth book since inception
- 2024 – 1 in 7 children (14 percent) under the age of 5 in the U.S. receives a book in the mail each month from the program
- 2025 – The Imagination Library celebrates its 30 year anniversary
As of her passing, the Imagination Library has delivered 304,539,509 books since it was created. In a statement, Dollywood asked those wishing to honor her donate to the program.
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