The number of accomplishments, accolades, and milestones achieved by Dolly Parton is absolutely mesmerizing when looking at her career in country music. Dating back to the 1950s, the singer not only dominated country music, selling over 100 million albums, but she also composed over 3,000 songs. And that doesn’t include her prosperous career in Hollywood. An absolute legend and icon in country music, Dolly recently celebrated her birthday. And wanting to celebrate with her, the Waltonwood Main senior living community decided to honor the “9 to 5” star with a week-long celebration that involved a book drive and a pony.
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The idea to hold such an event surrounding Dolly happened thanks to Lindsay Charlefour, who works as the life enrichment director at the community in Rochester Hills, Michigan. After reading Dolly’s book, Behind the Seams, Charlefour explained how she wanted to help residents learn about the icon. “I started thinking Waltonwood, Dollywood — a whole week of nothing but celebrating, honoring, learning about her. I ran out of space on the calendar because there was so much we could do.”
While explaining the process of bringing the celebration to life, Charlefour admitted to “going all over the state of Michigan finding Dolly Parton CDs or knickknacks.” After finding more than enough items pertaining to Dolly, she added, “I set up different exhibits in areas of the community for residents to learn more about her. It’s really important to me, that the residents hear, see, touch — that they can interact. And the more they know, how can you not fall in love with Dolly?”
Even Macho The Pony Celebrated Dolly Parton
Setting up the event, Charlefour welcomed residents as they celebrated more than Dolly’s birthday. The festivities featured a dinner showcasing some of the singer’s favorite foods for her native Tennessee, a book drive to help Dolly’s Imagination Library, and even a recreation of Dollywood’s famous dinner show, Stampede. And to top it all off, Charlefour welcomed a pony named Macho, who embraced Dolly by wearing a blonde wig.
With the resident loving the Dolly celebration, Charlefour was overjoyed. “This is exactly why we do what we do.” She concluded, “Happy birthday to Dolly from Waltonwood and all of the residents.”
(Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images for ABA)
