Dolly Parton has joined the fight against pediatric infectious disease in a major way.
Two years after she donated $1 million to fund research that helped develop the COVID-19 vaccine, the country music legend has made another $1 million donation to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee to help prevent and treat infections in children.
VUMC announced Parton's latest donation on Wednesday, which it said in a news release will go toward ongoing research on how viruses and bacteria cause disease, understanding and preventing resistance to antibiotics, preventing and treating infections, and diagnosing and treating infections in children with cancer.
“I love all children. No child should ever have to suffer, and I’m willing to do my part to try and keep as many of them as I can as healthy and safe as possible,” Parton said in a statement.
It’s another example of Parton’s charitable efforts. She previously donated to help families impacted by wildfires in her home state of Tennessee in 2016, and then gave $1 million to VUMC at the start of the pandemic in April 2020 to combat the coronavirus, which helped lead to the development of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine.
Parton also founded the literacy program Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in 1995, which has donated more than 100 million children’s books.
This is also her latest donation to the hospital in Nashville that is earmarked to help children.
“Dolly’s previous support to infectious disease research, and also our pediatric cancer program, has already saved countless lives,” said Jeff Balser, president and CEO of VUMC and dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said in a statement. “This new gift will bolster our defenses against future threats to the safety of this region and society as a whole. It speaks volumes about her passion for people, and we couldn’t be more thankful.”
Philanthropy has always been a crucial part of Parton's vast array of interests.
“I’m just happy that anything I do can help somebody else," she said on TODAY in 2020.