When devastating wildfires swept through East Tennessee in late 2016, thousands of people suddenly found themselves facing a reality they could hardly have imagined.
Homes disappeared.
Neighborhoods were damaged.
Families who had spent years building their lives in the mountains of Sevier County were forced to confront the possibility that almost everything familiar to them was gone.
For Dolly Parton, the disaster was not simply another tragedy she had watched unfold on television.
It had happened at home.
Parton was born and raised in Sevier County, Tennessee, in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. Long before she became an internationally famous singer, songwriter, actress, entrepreneur and philanthropist, she grew up in a small cabin in the region with her parents and 11 siblings.
Those mountains had shaped her childhood, her music and much of her identity.
So when the fires devastated communities near Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Parton decided she wanted to do something unusually direct.
Rather than simply announcing a donation to a large disaster organization, she wanted to put money directly into the hands of families whose primary residences had been destroyed or made uninhabitable.
The result was the My People Fund.
And what began as a promise of $1,000 per month eventually became something even larger.
By the time the program ended, eligible families had received a total of $10,000 each.
For hundreds of households trying to rebuild their lives, that money arrived at a moment when almost every ordinary expense had suddenly become difficult.
The Night East Tennessee Changed
On November 28, 2016, wildfires driven by extremely dry conditions and powerful winds spread rapidly through parts of Sevier County and the Great Smoky Mountains region.
The fires became one of the most destructive disasters in the area's modern history.
Communities around Gatlinburg were particularly hard hit. Residents were forced to evacuate as flames spread through wooded hillsides and residential areas. Homes, businesses and other structures were destroyed or damaged.
For the people affected, the loss was much more than financial.
A house contains decades of accumulated memories.
Family photographs.
Children's belongings.
Furniture passed from one generation to another.
Clothing, documents and personal possessions that cannot always be replaced.
Then, even after the immediate danger passes, practical questions begin almost immediately.
Where will the family sleep tonight?
How will they pay for temporary housing?
What happens if insurance takes weeks or months to process?
How will they replace clothing?
What about food?
Transportation?
School supplies?
Medication?
Work?
For families already living on tight budgets, a disaster can turn an already fragile financial situation into a crisis almost overnight.
Dolly Parton understood that the people affected needed more than sympathy.
They needed money they could actually use.
“My People”
Within days of the disaster, Parton announced the creation of the My People Fund through the Dollywood Foundation.
The name itself was deeply personal.
These were not strangers in some distant part of the country.
They were people from the region where she had grown up.
"My people," as the fund's name made clear.
The program was designed to provide direct financial assistance to families whose primary residences had been completely destroyed or rendered uninhabitable by the fires.
Each qualifying household would receive $1,000 per month.
The original commitment was to continue those payments for six months.
For a family suddenly dealing with displacement, $1,000 could make an immediate difference.
It might help pay rent for temporary accommodation.
It could cover groceries.
It could replace essential clothing.