6 minute read
Imagine That
C-SC HELPS HUNSAKER GROW FROM SMALL TOWN GIRL TO ASSISTING DOLLY PARTON’S BOOK-GIFTING PROGRAM
Doing important and world-changing work for nonprofit organizations is not always glamorous, but as alumna Pam Hunsaker ’83 shares, it certainly can be if your boss is country music superstar Dolly Parton.
Pam Hunsaker calls the interview for her job as a regional director with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library “one of the highlights of my life.”
“They flew me to Tennessee to have a conversation with Dolly,” Hunsaker said. “I boarded her tour bus and had a lovely, short five-minute conversation. It was just Dolly and I. She’s truly beautiful.”
Hunsaker now is in her 20th year with the Imagination Library, a book gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth until they
begin school. Her enthusiasm for her job has yet to wane and working for one of the most successful stars in the history of country music still gives her chills.
“Dolly is amazing,” Hunsaker said. “She is beautiful inside and out. She’s smart. She’s funny. She’s kind. She’s generous. She’s one of the smartest businesswomen out there. I’ve worked for her for 20 years, and I don’t have one bad thing to say. Nothing. She’s truly genuine.”
Looking back, Hunsaker recognizes that she never would have worked for Parton had it not been for the personal growth she experienced while she was a student at Culver-Stockton.
She grew up in the tiny town of Auxvasse, Mo. (pop. 980), where she says she didn’t own a pair of blue jeans, didn’t have her ears pierced and didn’t have any confidence. Nearby University of Missouri only 20 miles away was too big and intimidating. A cousin convinced her to visit Canton, Mo., in the spring of 1979, and the rest was history.
“I wanted a place that was more personal. I wanted to be more than just a number,” she said. “That’s exactly what happened at Culver-Stockton.”
Hunsaker immersed herself in college life on “the Hill.” She joined the Chi Omega sorority, served as a member of the yearbook staff, worked in the library and the public relations office and completed a double major in journalism and business administration in 1983.
“I blossomed. I became who I was meant to be,” Hunsaker said. “CulverStockton just gave me that confidence. I’d had none of these experiences before. Everything I did at Culver-Stockton was brand new, but I felt like I belonged.”
She met her husband, Mark, at C-SC, and accepted her first job in the admission office shortly after graduation. The Hunsakers eventually moved to Hannibal, Mo., where she worked for the American Cancer Society and spent 10 years with the United Way.
The Hunsakers moved to Columbia, Mo., in 1992 and Pam worked a variety of different jobs in Jefferson City, Mo., before beginning to work in development for Stephens College and then for a small not-for-profit.
Pam’s job with the Imagination Library came when officials began a search for an individual to lead their efforts in expanding their book gifting outside the borders of Sevier County, where Parton had grown up in Tennessee.
Serving as one of two regional directors, Hunsaker now covers 26
states for The Dollywood Foundation, which counts the Imagination Library as one of its many ways to help educate children. In her role, Pam works with tax exempt not-for-profit organizations to identify family-sponsors, also called affiliates, who want books delivered to children in their area. The affiliate pays $25 per child enrolled per year, and one book is delivered each month to each child’s home.
Hunsaker, who helps the affiliate organizations with fundraising and marketing, says about 1.6 million books are mailed monthly to children in 2,000 affiliates across the United States, England, Canada, Australia and Ireland. Parton’s business holdings pay the lion’s share of the cost of the program, demonstrating the philanthropic nature of their founder, Dolly.
“Dolly Parton wanted books in the homes of children,” Hunsaker said. “She did this program to honor her father, who did not know how to read or write. She knew that books in children’s homes would make a difference. (When the library was started) she didn’t care about the research, because she knew it would make a difference. That was good enough for her.”
Her business and journalism classes at C-SC prepared Hunsaker for a career she relishes.
“Everything I’ve done has just kind of built upon on each other, and if I hadn’t gone to Culver-Stockton College, I would not be where I’m at,” she said. “I wouldn’t have met my husband. I wouldn’t have met my lifelong friends.
“I truly was a little nobody from nowhere, and it’s not that I’m anybody from anywhere now, but I know I can do anything that I need to do because of Culver-Stockton.”
Though Mark Hunsaker did not earn his bachelor’s degree from CulverStockton College, he considers himself part of the Wildcat family and celebrates all of the lessons he learned during his time on “the Hill.”
Mark went to school for three years at C-SC and was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, where he made several lifelong friends. More importantly, he also met the woman who became his wife, Pam, in a speech class. When questioned about that fateful meeting on campus, Pam admits she liked his car more than she liked Mark at first.
“He had a ’79 Redbird (a special edition of a Pontiac Firebird). I loved that car,” Pam said with a laugh. “I decided to go out with him once and then I was just going to end it because we wouldn’t like each other. And guess what? I liked him a whole lot.”
Mark and Pam got married in 1985. Mark hoped he would use the criminal justice degree he earned and parlay it into a career as a policeman, but instead he took a job as an insurance adjuster in Hannibal, Mo. In 1992, the family moved to Columbia, Mo., so Mark could take a similar job, and he now works for Grinnell Mutual based out of Iowa.
“I have never had one boring day in 37 years of handling insurance claims,” he said.
Mark also has developed his own business, Hunsaker Smokers, where he creates competition-grade drum smokers, which have become popular in barbecue circles across the United States and abroad. His son, Ryan, runs the business’s day-to-day operations, while Mark spends nights and weekends designing and building the smokers, which are shipped all over the country and Canada and the Netherlands.
“I love the efficiency and speed that the drum smokers cook. We can get brisket done in four hours versus 14 hours,” he said. “It’s keeping us pretty busy. We’re normally running at least 20 to 30 behind all the time on our smoker orders.”
In his spare time, Mark enjoys keeping in touch with friends he made at Culver-Stockton and takes frequent trips to fish for trout at Bennett Spring State Park in Lebanon, Mo. with fellow Wildcats he counts among his lifelong friends.
“The experience at Culver-Stockton is seriously dear to my heart,” he said. “At a smaller college, you can develop more personal relationships. I consider Culver-Stockton my school because of the friends I developed.”
