Dolly Parton joined Hurricane Helene relief efforts by donating $1 million of her own money, the country icon announced in a statement Friday. Parton’s Dollywood also pledged an additional $1 million to the Mountain Ways Foundation.
Walmart CEO John Furner joined the musician at a press conference on Friday in order to discuss how the company is helping to assist with delivery of supplies to hard hit areas in the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia and other hard-hit areas. He further announced that Walmart and Sam’s Club will be upping their relief commitments to $10 million, up from $6 million.
“I’m happy to be here,” Parton said at the press conference. “And I’m sure a lot of you are wondering where I’ve been. Everybody’s saying, ‘Where’s Dolly? Well, I’ve been like everybody else, trying to absorb everything going on, trying to figure out all the best ways to do this,” she continued.
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we had the fires? Everybody pitched in, tried to do eve
rything that they could.
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The death toll from Hurricane Helene has surged past 200, while hundreds remain missing after the storm dumped trillions of gallons of water on the American South.
More than half the deaths have been recorded in Western North Carolina, where rain led to mudslides and landslides that devastated remote communities. U.S. Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) who has been working to conduct rescue efforts with a number of organizations laid out the dire situation in a video statement uploaded
to X.
“As a Florida man, one of the places we went to recently, it was called Pensacola, North Carolina,
Rescue efforts have been hindered due the large number of roads that have been completely wiped out by the storm, cutting off thousands from communication, resupply and evacuation. Large swaths of the impact zone are only accessible by air more than a week after the storm made landfall on Florida’s gulf coast.
Parton, a native of Eastern Tennessee, explained that she wanted to give back to the community where she was raised.
“We’re all here to mend these broken hearts, and that’s what I’m doing here,” she said. “So, I really, really wish that we were all together for another reason.”
“But we all have seen the devastation,” Parton added. “I mean, who knew in our little part of the country here where I was born, raised just right down the road, that we would have this kind of devastation? And I look around, and I think these are my mountains, these are my valleys. These are my rivers flowing like a stre
am. These are my people, these mountain-colored rainbows. These are my people. And this is my home.”
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