Dolly Parton donates another $1M — this time for children’s disease research

Dolly Parton is the country gift that keeps on givin’.

The “9 to 5” legend has donated $1 million to pediatric infectious disease research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, the organization announced Wednesday.

According to the center, the gift will help doctors with their research in understanding “how viruses and bacteria cause disease, understanding and preventing resistance to antibiotics, preventing and treating infections, diagnosing and treating infections in children with cancer and research to define the impact of childhood infections throughout the world.”

The country legend alluded to doing what she could to end the suffering of kids in a statement.

“I love all children. No child should ever have to suffer, and I’m willing to do my part to try and keep as many of them as I can as healthy and safe as possible,” Parton said.

This isn’t the first time Parton, 76, has graciously helped Vanderbilt. Fans joked that she “cured the coronavirus” when she gave $1 million to scientists involved in Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine trials in April 2020.

“I knew something bad was on the rise and I just wanted to kind of help with that,” Parton then told the Hollywood Reporter at the time.

“Mine was a small part, of course. I probably get a lot more credit than I deserve,” she added of her involvement with the vaccine. “I was happy to be a part of that and to be able to try to stop something in its tracks that’s really become just such a monster for all of us.”

Over the years, Parton has used her estimated $375 million net worth to give back to causes involving healthcare, education and equality.

In 1995, she founded Imagination Library, which has donated almost 170 million books to children under age 5.

“I’m kind of addicted to the feeling of giving,” she told People in December 2021. “Knowing that I’m doing something good for someone else.”

The modest and cautious mogul reportedly was forced to turn down the Presidential Medal of Freedom two times due to scheduling conflicts during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I couldn’t accept it because my husband was ill and then they asked me again about it and I wouldn’t travel because of the COVID,” Parton said in February 2021.