Coronavirus: Dolly Parton donates $1M to Vanderbilt Medical Center for research

Dolly Parton has donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for its efforts to research COVID-19, the country music legend announced on social media Wednesday.

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“My longtime friend Dr. Naji Abumrad, who’s been involved in research at Vanderbilt for many years, informed me that they were making some exciting advancements toward research of the coronavirus for a cure," Parton wrote in an Instagram post. "I am making a donation of $1 million to Vanderbilt towards that research and to encourage people that can afford it to make donations,” she said.

Parton, 74, tweeted the same message on Twitter.

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Parton is also working with her charity, The Imagination Library, to read a children’s book on YouTube every Thursday at 7 p.m. EDT for 10 weeks. The Imagination Library provides children free books by mail every month and the program is available in all 50 states and five countries.

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“Good Night With Dolly” already has 1,587,805 children registered, and 133,899,247 books have been mailed, according to her website.

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