Tennessee's best-known Dolly is now sharing her name with a children's hospital. Rolling Stone reports that the nearly 90-year-old East Tennessee Children's Hospital in Knoxville has been renamed the Dolly Parton Children's Hospital. The independent, nonprofit facility opened in 1937 and is certified as a Comprehensive Regional Pediatric Center. The institution says it treats infants through teens "regardless of their race, religion, or ability to pay." With more than 400 physicians and roughly 2,200 employees, it's one of the area's largest employers.
"This is more than a name change," hospital president and CEO Matt Schaefer said in a statement to People. "With Dolly's support, we are strengthening our mission to deliver world-class pediatric care to families." The hospital didn't disclose how much money the country superstar had donated, but Schaefer said it was enough to ensure "every child who walks through our doors receives the treatment they deserve," the AP reports. Adam Cook, the hospital's chief development and public affairs officer, called the Parton partnership "a generational collaboration that will transform pediatric care in this region."
"Being fortunate to have grown up in the mountains of East Tennessee, I learned early on what it means to take care of one another," Parton said in a statement. "Every child deserves world-class care, wrapped in kindness and love." The 80-year-old singer and philanthropist has spent decades funding programs for kids, including the Dollywood Foundation, launched in 1988 to boost educational outcomes, and the Imagination Library, which has provided free books to children since 1995.
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