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Dolly Parton moves closer to sainthood with new Dollywood policy

Dolly Parton is receiving tremendous praise after her company, Dollywood Parks & Resorts, offers free college tuition for employees.

Dolly Parton Getty
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Country music legend Dolly Parton is widely regarded as America’s Sweetheart, and definitely for good reason, as her latest good deed provides a free college ride for employees of her Dollywood Parks & Resorts seeking to obtain higher education.

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Per Fox17, Dollywood recently revealed an exclusive program that will pay for its employees wishing to strengthen their individual education — which includes full tuition, textbooks, and fees. The rewarding program, which is set to launch on Feb 24., will be readily available to all part-time, full-time, seasonal employees and such individuals can enroll in the program on their very first day of work.

When speaking of the announcement, President of Dollywood Eugene Naughton encouraged the program as an effort to aid in employee growth and establish personal and professional credibility.

One of The Dollywood Foundation’s key tenets is to ‘learn more.’ This program is created with that very tenet in mind. We want our hosts to develop themselves through advanced learning to fulfill the foundation’s other tenets: care more, dream more, and be more. When our hosts strive to grow themselves, it makes our business and our community a truly better place. We care about our hosts’ development and we want their future to grow because of love—not loans.

Dolly currently co-owns Dollywood with Herschend Family Entertainment, and it is certainly not the first time that The Dollywood Company has made charitable efforts. In the past, The Dollywood Foundation raised money for causes like the American Red Cross, HIV/AIDS-related charities, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. While Dolly Parton may not be an actual saint, she remains as close as one can actually get.