08/26/2026
A legacy that will keep arriving, one book at a time. ❤️📚
Today, we join millions around the world in mourning the passing of Dolly Parton—an extraordinary artist, philanthropist, dreamer, and champion for children.
At One Place, Dolly’s legacy is deeply personal to us.
Since 2011, we have had the extraordinary privilege of serving as a local affiliate of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, helping carry forward her simple but powerful belief that every child deserves the opportunity to grow up with books.
In those 15 years, more than 1.25 million books have been placed into the hands and homes of children who have lived in Onslow County from birth to age five.
Think about that.
More than a million opportunities for a child to crawl into someone’s lap and hear a story.
More than a million opportunities to learn a new word, ask a question, use their imagination, or say, “Read it again.”
More than a million investments in who those children might someday become.
We know literacy is more than learning to read. It is a protective factor that can last a lifetime and change the trajectory of a person’s life.
That is the legacy Dolly entrusted communities like ours to carry.
We are profoundly grateful to every donor who has invested alongside us over these years and to the North Carolina General Assembly for its significant investment in expanding and sustaining Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library across our state. Together, you have helped ensure that Dolly’s dream will live far beyond any one of us.
And today, we are especially grateful for those choosing to honor Dolly’s life by giving so that books will continue arriving in the mailboxes of Onslow County children in her name.
Dolly dreamed that children would “Dream More, Learn More, Care More and Be More.”
We are proud to have been part of carrying that dream for 15 years.
And we will keep carrying it.
One child. One family. One book at a time.
Thank you, Dolly. ❤️
Your music will live on.
Your generosity will live on.
And every time another book arrives in the hands of a child, so will your legacy. ~ Dawn Rochelle, CEO of One Place