Date: October 3, 2008
Contact: Bob Miller, (865) 436-1207
 |
| Great Smoky Mountains native Dolly Parton will serve as the park's official 75th Anniversary Ambassador. |
 |
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent has announced that Dolly Parton has agreed to serve as the Ambassador during the Park’s celebration of its 75th Anniversary. As the Park’s Ambassador, Parton will lend her name and image to a variety of Park events, activities and informational media.
Ditmanson said "When we first sat down with our park partners and began brainstorming about how the Park’s anniversary could best gain national stature we asked ourselves: ‘If we could pick one person who is the most recognized and personifies the love of the Smokies, who would it be?’ The answer was a resounding ‘Dolly Parton! But she’s so much in demand; do you think she’ll do it?"
To find out the answer, contacts were made through Friends of the Smokies with the Dollywood Foundation and found that Parton, who grew up in foothills of the Smokies in Sevier County, Tenn. was excited to be asked to help the Park celebrate its anniversary.
"The Smokies are part of my DNA." Parton said, "I have always been an Ambassador, but I am particularly honored to become "official" for this special 75th Anniversary."
In addition to lending her endorsement to various Park-related publications and other informational media, the singer/actress Dolly has written an entire album entitled "Sha-Kon-O-Hey", which is the phonetic spelling for the Cherokee word, "Shaconage", or "Land of the Blue Smoke". The rights to the entire album will be donated to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park through the Friends of the Smokies during the 75th anniversary year.
Friends of the Smokies President, Jim Hart, said, "We were exceedingly pleased by Dolly’s generosity her enthusiasm about getting involved with the Anniversary. She is an extremely popular performer, and is obviously very much in demand for all sorts of very worthy causes. So we were touched that she felt such a strong bond to the mountains and wanted to find a way to help preserve them."
This week the Great Smoky Mountains Association plans to begin offering its 75th Anniversary edition of "Smokies Life" magazine, a magazine that includes a wide range of feature articles and photo spreads including a "then and now" look at preserving historic buildings, a feature about the various species of native wildlife that the Park has restored, a profile of the Park’s first superintendent, Ross Eakin, and a conversation with the Park’s current superintendent, Dale Ditmanson. It also provides a timeline of milestones in the Park’s creation and development.
When readers open the 125 page souvenir edition, the first thing they will find is a welcome to the 75th Anniversary from Parton and her personal message: "The Smoky Mountains have inspired me and my music since I was a little girl. They touch my soul and lift my spirits. Let’s celebrate America’s most popular national park, but most especially, join me in making sure its magnificent beauty thrives for generations to come."
Ditmanson continued, "Dolly Parton is a much-respected and loved member of the community, as well as a world-famous celebrity. Having her lend support to our 75th Anniversary will be a fabulous asset towards increasing the visibility of the Smokies and helping increasing its stewardship for the next 75 years."
