Dolly Parton Donates $1 Million to Hurricane Helene Relief Effort

Dolly Parton just gets better and better. The pop culture icon, who in recent months has welcomed Beyonce into the country music fold, forgiven an admittedly “hammered” Elle King for a blurry birthday tribute, and—perhaps most gloriously—freed herself from the burden of text messages, announced Friday that she would donate $1 million to the relief efforts following Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 hurricane that experts have termed one of the biggest storm systems to ever hit the U.S.

The weather event, which impacted much of the south late last month, has been linked to over 200 deaths, with even more people still considered missing across states including Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee and across the Appalachian mountains. As the scale of damage came into focus, it's been estimated that the Southeast region suffered losses that run as high as an estimated $250 billion.

That's a figure that tops the worth of the world's richest man Elon Musk, who allegedly clocks in at $258 billion. Speaking of Musk, its worth noting that thus far, his gesture toward the disaster has been to spread misinformation and falsehoods via X (formerly Twitter), the social media platform he's owned since the fall of 2022. Musk's claims, which have been debunked by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, include false allegations that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) blocked relief and recovery flights through the disaster zone, and that FEMA “is actively blocking citizens who try to help.”

“No one is shutting down the airspace and FAA doesn’t block legitimate rescue and recovery flights,” Buttigieg said in response. And according to a statement from FEMA, “There are no airspace restrictions in place in North Carolina as rescue efforts continue because of Hurricane Helene…The FAA is working with local authorities to ensure rescue efforts happen safely.”

But while Musk tweets (and reportedly heads to Butler, PA to join Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for a rally at the site of June's assassination attempt against the former president), Dolly Parton is taking action. The singer and actress called a press conference at a Walmart in Newport, Tennessee to announce her $1 million donation to Mountain Ways Foundation, a nonprofit established by local businesses and philanthropists in the wake of the hurricane to support recovery across the Greater Appalachian region.

"These are special people here; they're my people," the 78-year-old native of Locust Ridge, Tennessee said at the event.

"I feel like all people are my people, but everyone here grew up in the mountains just like I did, so of course I have a close connection to them. I can't stand to see anyone hurting, so I wanted to do what I could to help after these terrible floods."

“Who would’ve known that in this little part of the country where I was born and raised would have this kind of devastation,” she said. “I am totally with you because I am part of you.”

Parton's donation will be matched by a number of her East Tennessee-based businesses, including her philanthropic organization, the Dollywood Foundation, In addition, Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner announced that Walmart, Sam's Club and the Walmart Foundation would donate an additional $10 million to support storm victims and the recovery effort.

Furner, whose family moved to Franklin, Tennessee in 1979, said that “We’ll be here. Not until the media leaves, but until we recover. And that’s what’s going to happen here, we’re going to recover."

According to Parton, this pool of donations is just the beginning. “I wanted to announce that from myself personally, just from my own bank account, I’m donating a million dollars today,” she said, "but there’s a lot to be done, and we’re trying to find other ways to even raise more funds.”

This isn't the first time Parton has made headlines for a sizable donation in a time of crisis. The Black Lives Matter supporter donated $1 million towards vaccine research at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and another $1 million toward pediatric infectious disease research in 2022. But at Friday's press conference, she shrugged off those donations, telling WVLT that “You’re never prepared, you just try to step up. God has been good to me, and so has the public, so I want to feel like I’m doing my part."