Dolly Parton is a national treasure.
If you haven’t heard the news, the biotech company Moderna just developed a vaccine that 94.5% effective against preventing COVID-19. The results of their initial tests were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, but you know what else was published in the New England Journal of Medicine? The donors.
And who donated a cool $1 million bucks to support the research the led to the Moderna vaccine? The Dolly Parton COVID-19 Research Fund.
AKA, Dolly is literally saving the world.
In various social media posts earlier this year, Dolly explained her decision to help fund COVID research at Vanderbilt. Parton wrote:
“My longtime friend Dr Naji Abumrad, who’s been involved in research at Vanderbilt for many years, informed me that they were making some exciting advancements towards research of the coronavirus for a cure. I am making a donation of $1 million to Vanderbilt towards that research and to encourage people that can afford it to make donations.”
But that’s not all…. because kids were out of school, Dolly launched a web series called “Goodnight with Dolly” where she reads bedtime stories from her Imagination Library to children. If you’re not familiar with the Imagination Library, it’s a literacy program that Dolly launched in 1995 to send free books to children every month until their 5th birthday. In that time, Dolly has given away over 130 MILLION free books.
And to top it all off, she released an encouraging new song called “When Life Is Good Again,” about coming out of quarantine with more compassion and love for those around you.
