Dolly Parton Makes Donation to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital

Dolly Parton is changing lives just because she can. 

After the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital announced that it would be renamed in the “Jolene” hitmaker’s honor, its president and chief executive officer Matt Schaefer revealed how her sizeable donation will be the highlight of countless lives.

“What I can tell you is that she has made a generational and transformational commitment to Children’s and its mission,” Schaefer told Chief Healthcare Executive in an interview published March 30, “and that commitment is something that goes beyond our wildest expectations, that is beyond generous, and will be a lifeline for this mission for now and for years to come.”

Schaefer added, “And we’re excited about and humbled by her willingness to do so.”

While the hospital exec didn’t divulge the exact monetary value of the “9 to 5” singer’s donation, he noted how the hospital’s name change to the Dolly Parton’s Children’s Hospital will “allow them to tell a broader story about the depth and breadth of services here, to imagine how we can continue to expand those services, and it accelerates how we should think about what our responsibility is to the patients and families that trust us today and invariably will trust us tomorrow.”