Thread by @Goodable

When people think of Dolly Parton, they think of an actress or a singer, but did you know that she’s quietly helped millions of children to read?

Here’s how she did it.

A Goodable Thread. 🧵

#HappyBirthdayDolly

This is Sevierville, Tennessee.

It has a population of 18,600.

In 1990, the town’s high school dropout rate was 54% – one of the highest in the country.

Dolly was born in Sevierville and unlike other megastars, she never forgot where she came from.

So here’s what she did.

One year, she invited all fifth and sixth graders to Dollywood.

She told them to pick a buddy, and then made them a deal: If both of them graduated, they would each get $500 on their graduation day.

After a few years, the dropout rate fell – but Dolly wanted to do more.

Dolly learned the reason kids were dropping out of high school was because they didn’t get enough academic support when they were younger. So Dolly personally paid for teaching assistants for every first grade class for the next two years.

It worked — but she wanted to do more.

Dolly saw that children from low-income families started school at a big disadvantage, because they couldn’t read at the same level as other kids.

So she quietly started giving out free books.

She even gave it a special name.

She called it the Imagination Library.

Every month, every child in Sevier County would get a free book mailed to them – no strings attached.

It started from the time a child was born and continued until they reached kindergarten.

And it worked.

It was so successful that Dolly began expanding the program.

Before long, other states were asking for books — and Dolly kept sending them.

Eventually it expanded to Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

Tens of thousands of children were learning to read thanks to Dolly.

In 2018, she donated her 100 millionth book to the Library of Congress.

It’s titled “A Coat of Many Colors.”

Dolly dedicated it to her father, who never had the opportunity to go to school but always encouraged her to follow her dreams.

Today, Dolly’s Imagination Library has mailed out more than 193 million free books to children all over the world. Nearly 2 million children are registered.

Think about that for a second.

There are entire generations of children who learned to read thanks to Dolly.

Today, if you go to her website, you’ll see a letter written by Dolly.

She says despite all her achievements, the most important thing she’s done is to help kids to read.

It ends with these words.

“The first step is always the hardest, but you’ll never know unless you try.”

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