Dolly Parton recently appeared on King 5 Seattle and discussed the time she was chosen as the Courage & Civility Award recipient. Towards the end of last year, Parton was given a hundred million dollars by Jeff Bezos as the award, and she assured everyone that she would spend the money for ‘good things.’
The Courage & Civility Award recognizes community leaders who are committed to finding solutions and supporting others throughout their careers. The award comes with a $100 million prize, which the recipient can donate to the charities of their choice. Parton was chosen as this year’s recipient during the ceremony.
After getting informed that Bezos is a local of Seattle, the singer detailed what she would do with the money:
“It was a $100 million. And because he had seen some of the charity work I had done before. And so I guess he felt like maybe I’d do something good with it. And I will and I have and I will continue to. I just, I’ve often said I just go where my heart leaves me. I put my money where my heart is. I just keep my eyes out for things that matter to me, things where I think I can be a best help, do a lot of things for children. I’m very involved in children’s projects and that sort of thing.”
She then praised Bezos and revealed where she would donate the money:
“But I saw where he had donated $100 million to the Maui fires, so I thought that was great. He’s a very generous man, so he trusted me with that much money, and I will continue. I have 10 years to spend all that. You don’t go out and just spend it all at once. And I’m not wanting to just want to get rid of it. I want to put it where I really feel that it can be done. And I donate a lot of it to the Imagination Library every year. I will be doing that out of that money.”
Bezos congratulated Parton on Twitter and stated that he was sure that the singer would put the money to great use.
The singer has been actively involved in charity work for many years and even established a library named ‘Imaginary Library’ to donate books to children from birth until the age of 5.
See the interview below.
