Our team, our local program partners, and every operational partner who helps make this program possible each month are heartbroken at the loss of our founder, Dolly Parton. (cont.)
If you want to honour Dolly Parton after her passing consider donating to the imagination library. It’s a really lovely program she created and championed that provides books to children ages 0-5 completely free!! https://t.co/5AFE83vRUk
In 1988 Dolly Parton pulled every 7th and 8th grader in Sevier County into a room and told them to pick a buddy.
She made them sign a contract.. if BOTH graduate, she hands you both $500. One fails, nobody gets paid.
The county dropout rate went from 35% to 6%.
She handed out the checks herself.
In 1989 she offered $500 to every kid in the county who wanted to go to the local college.
When Gatlinburg burned in 2016, she sent 900 families $1,000 a month for six months.
You've probably heard that part.
Here's the part you haven't:
The fund raised more than expected, so she showed up in May and handed every one of those families another $5,000 on top.
Then she quietly put $3 million into the recovery group that handles the years after the news trucks leave.
She built her county an entire hospital.
She played a benefit concert in 2007, Dollywood and the Stampede matched it, and LeConte Medical Center opened in 2010 with a birthing unit and a women's center in it.
In 2022 she started covering 100% of tuition, books, and fees for Dollywood employees.
Full-time, part-time, AND seasonal.
In 1991 she paid for a bald eagle sanctuary because the birds couldn't be released back into the wild, no press release.
And when Hurricane Helene came through here in Western North Carolina, she wrote a personal check for $1 million and her companies matched it.
She didn't owe North Carolina anything, but she helped us anyway.
She started the Imagination Library because her daddy couldn't read or write. Before he passed, he told her it was the most important thing she ever did.
Rest in Peace, Dolly 🇺🇸
Prosecutors charging Keshia Golden with first degree murder after she called the police over 50 times for domestic violence is their way of telling her and every other survivor you should let your abuser kill you.
LET THEM BEAT YOU TO DEATH. Because if you defend yourself and your child, we will make you regret it. We will punish you for surviving.
Keshia’s legal team is asking for public outcry. Let’s give it to her.
Not to veer into conspiracies , but reports like this genuinely make me wonder whether there is a broader effort to destabilise Southern Africa. Ours is one of the few regions on the continent that has largely avoided the kind of prolonged, large-scale conflicts…
STATISTICALLY, a woman is more likely to receive a harsher sentence for killing a man than a man is for killing a woman.
It’s called “intimacy bias” and it is OVERFLOWING the prisons with women. It’s why I do what I do https://t.co/qyAZvn9Pvv
Hey friends please like and RT and let’s support a black girl business 🤎. One of my followers and her mom started a thoughtful business that helps young girls & women that time of the month . Petals Period Box 🤍🥺🥂
The media sector in Africa has failed us. We keep seeing news about Ukraine and Gaza but the genocide happening in neighbouring countries like Sudan and Congo has been grossly underreported.
We need to do better in Africa.
A woman has started a TikTok account exposing South African men who leave sexual comments on videos of kids. She’s also sending emails to the men’s employers. Other men are in the comments calling her a witch… https://t.co/i1XLJwod7c
𝐀 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑 𝐈𝐒 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐄𝐃!
A proud moment as TUT’s very own : Bayanda Walaza is crowned Youth/Junior Sport Star of the Year at the 19th Annual South African Sport Awards!
Your speed, determination and excellence continue to inspire the next generation. The future is indeed bright!
Congratulations, Bayanda! Keep flying the TUT flag high!
#TUTSport #HomeOfChampions #CrownedByGreatness #SASA2026 #YouthSportStar #IzanjaZeGame