DOLLY PARTON ANNOUNCES HURRICANE RELIEF EFFORTS

DOLLY PARTON ANNOUNCES HURRICANE RELIEF EFFORTS

PIGEON FORGE, Tenn
— Today, Dolly Parton will assist with the ongoing relief efforts
around the United States and its territories by making a contribution to
the One America Appeal for Hurricane Relief
to assist with immediate life sustaining needs of those affected. The
One America Appeal is a joint appeal that was originally launched by all
five living former American Presidents to encourage their fellow
citizens to support recovery efforts from Hurricane Harvey. This special
appeal has been expanded to include areas most affected by Hurricanes
Irma and Maria.

Dolly recalled, “After the tremendous outpouring of support my
hometown received last winter after the wildfires raged through the
area, I want to do my part to help other areas affected by natural
disasters. I admire and respect this effort led by our Presidents so it
is an honor for me to contribute to their work.”

In addition to the financial contribution to the One America Appeal, Dolly will launch a partnership with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, the nonprofit social enterprise First Book, and Penguin Young Readers to provide 500,000 books to hurricane-affected areas through the First Book National Book Bank.To kick off thecampaign,
Dolly’s foundation donated 165,000 books and the $90,750 needed to
cover the shipping and handling charges to make books available quickly
and at no cost to educators affected by the storms. From Hurricane
Katrina to Hurricane Sandy to last year’s floods in Louisiana, First
Book has distributed over 5 million books to families affected by
disasters, in partnership with children’s book publishers, including a
substantial book donation from Penguin Young Readers. Penguin Young
Readers also partners with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and First
Book to support their book gifting programs and other outreach efforts,
with a special focus on getting books to children in times of natural
disasters.

“I know in the immediate aftermath of a disaster books are not the
first thing people need or miss. But I also know from our past
experience that after some time has passed, families, schools and
libraries are eager to replenish their shelves, and their hearts, with
books. First Book asked us to join with them to get the right books in
the right hands at the right time and we were pleased to do so,” said
Dolly.

If you would like to learn more or donate to this effort—or if you
work with a school or program affected by the storms—please visit support.firstbook.org.

Schools and programs affected by the storms can sign up for free with
First Book and will then receive information about how to request
books; each book distribution will be allocated on a first-come,
first-served basis.

ABOUT DOLLY PARTON:

Dolly Parton is the most honored female country performer of all
time. Achieving 25 RIAA certified gold, platinum and multi-platinum
awards, she has had 25 songs reach #1 on the Billboard Country charts, a
record for a female artist. She has 41 career top 10 country albums, a
record for any artist, and she has 110 career-charted singles over the
past 40 years. All-inclusive sales of singles, albums, hits collections,
paid digital downloads and compilation usage during her Hall of Fame
career have reportedly topped a staggering 100 million records – which
includes sales of her 2016 chart-topping disc Pure & Simple, her
first number one album on the Billboard Country Album charts in
twenty-five years. She has garnered eight Grammy Awards – including a
2017 win with Pentatonix in the Country Duo/Group Performance category
for their collaboration on her iconic 1973 hit “Jolene” – 10 Country
Music Association Awards, five Academy of Country Music Awards, three
American Music Awards and is one of only five female artists to win the
Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year Award. In 1999
Parton was inducted as a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. She
has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and became a member of
the National Academy of Popular Music Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001.
Broadcast Music Inc. honored Parton with their Icon Award in 2003, and
in 2004 the U.S. Library of Congress presented her with their Living
Legend Award for her contribution to the cultural heritage of the United
States. This was followed in 2005 with the National Medal of Arts, the
highest honor given by the U.S. government for excellence in the arts.
The honors keep coming. The 2016 made for television movie, Dolly
Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love is nominated in the
“Television Movie” category for the 69th Annual Emmy Awards. The film
also won in the TV and Cable category at the 68th Annual Christopher
Awards, which also includes the Movieguide Epiphany Prize for
Television. The film served as the follow-up to her highly rated 2015
film Coat Of Many Colors, also broadcast on NBC, which won the Academy
of Country Music’s Tex Ritter Award. In 2017, Dolly will release “I
Believe In You,” a collection of children’s songs on Dolly Records
through her partnership with Sony Music Nashville.

ABOUT DOLLY PARTON’S IMAGINATION LIBRARY:

Founded in 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting
organization that has, to date, mailed more than 100 million books to
children in Australia, Belize, Canada, United Kingdom and the United
States. Each month, the program currently mails more than one million
specially selected, high-quality, age-appropriate books to registered
children from birth until they start Kindergarten in participating
communities. Dolly envisioned creating a lifelong love of reading in
children, preparing them for school and inspiring them to dream. Recent
studies suggest participation in the Imagination Library is positively
and significantly associated with higher measures of early language and
math development. Penguin Random House is the exclusive publisher for
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

ABOUT FIRST BOOK:

First Book transforms the lives of children in need. Through a
sustainable, market-driven model, First Book is creating equal access to
quality education—making everything from brand-new, high-quality books
and educational resources, to sports equipment, winter coats, snacks,
and more—affordable to its member network of more than 325,000 educators
who exclusively serve kids in need. Since 1992, First Book has
distributed more than 170 million books and educational resources to
programs and schools serving children from low-income families in more
than 30 countries. First Book currently reaches an average of 3 million
children every year and supports more than one in four of the estimated
1.3 million classrooms and programs serving children in need. With an
additional 1,000 educators joining each week, First Book is the largest
and fastest-growing network of educators in North America exclusively
serving kids in need.

ABOUT PENGUIN YOUNG READERS:

Penguin Young Readers is one of the leading children’s book
publishers in the United States. The company owns a wide range of
imprints and trademarks including Dial Books, Dutton, Grosset &
Dunlap, Kathy Dawson Books, Nancy Paulsen Books, Penguin Workshop,
Philomel, Puffin, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Viking, Razorbill, Speak, and
Frederick Warne. These imprints are home to such award-winning, New York
Times- bestselling authors as, Laurie Halse Anderson, Jay Asher, Judy
Blume, Jan Brett, Eric Carle, Ally Condie, Roald Dahl, Tomie dePaola,
Sarah Dessen, Anna Dewdney, John Flanagan, John Green, Oliver Jeffers,
Marie Lu, Mike Lupica, Richelle Mead, Richard Peck, Ruta Sepetys,
Jacqueline Woodson and dozens of other popular authors. Penguin Young
Readers Group is also the proud publisher of perennial brand franchises
such as the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series, Peter Rabbit, Spot, the
Classic Winnie the Pooh, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Madeline, Mad
Libs, the Rangers Apprentice, Skippyjon Jones, Who Was?, and Flower
Fairies among many others. Penguin Young Readers Group is a division of
Penguin Group LLC, a Penguin Random House company.