Dolly Parton Receives $100 Million Courage And Civility Award From Jeff Bezos, With The Money Going To Charitable Efforts Of Her Choice

Dolly Parton country music
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Dolly Parton truly does “put her money where heart is,” as she often says she strives to do.

And recently, she was awarded the Courage and Civility award by Jeff Bezos and his partner Lauren Sanchez, which comes in the form of $100 million check to the charitable efforts of her choice.

At a private event at Bezos’ home in Washington D.C. over the weekend, they presented it to her, with Lauren saying:

“The award recognizes leaders who aim high, find solutions, and who always do it with civility. Each awardee receives $100 million dollars to direct to the charities that they see fit.”

Jeff continued, noting the importance of Dolly’s Imagination Library foundation and how she’s encouraged children all over the country to read through the donation of thousands and thousands of books over the years:

“We have in this very room the next recipient of the courage and civility award. The women you’re about to meet embodies these ideals so thoroughly. She gives with her heart.

What she’s done for kids’ literacy and so many other things is just incredible. It is my great honor to welcome our 2022 Courage and Civility award recipient, Dolly Parton.”

Of course, the ever-gracious Mrs. Dolly accepted with enthusiasm, saying she’s going to do her best to make sure the money goes to the right places:

“Wow! Did you say 100 million dollars? When people are in a position to help, you should help. And I know that I’ve always said I try to put my money where my heart is.

And I think you do the same thing. I will do my best to do good things with this money. Thank you, Jeff.”

He shared part of the ceremony on Twitter, saying:

“We’ve just announced a new Courage and Civility award recipient — @DollyParton, who leads with her heart, and will put this $100 million award to great use helping so many people.

She joins prior awardees, @VanJones68 and @Chefjoseandres. Congrats, Dolly!”

In a wide-ranging interview with CNN, Jeff and his partner Lauren Sanchez noted they wanted to amplify the voices of people like Dolly, who have always done things the right way, bringing people together through love and kindness:

“Well, look at what she’s done and how she’s led her life. And the way she’s done it, these bold things, all with civility and kindness.

She’s a unifier, you know. We have big problems in the world and the way you get big problems done is, you work together.

And we have too many examples in the world of conflict and people using ad hominem attacks on social media so on and so on. You won’t find Dolly Parton doing that.”

Lauren added:

“And when you think of Dolly, look, everyone smiles, right? And all she wants to do is bring light into other peoples world. That’s all.

And so we couldn’t have thought of someone better than to give this award to Dolly.”

Amen to that…

You can check out part of their CNN interview here:

Dolly was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a couple weeks ago, where she also debuted a brand new rock song, which is likely part of a forthcoming rock album she’s been hinting at lately:

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