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Doll ministry puts toys under the tree
Dec. 21, 2005
A UMNS Report
By Jan Snider*
TUKWILA, Wash.--It was a moment
Betty Stout treasures.
As the child and her mother
stepped onto the public bus, Stout recognized the doll lovingly clutched in the
arms of the little girl.
Stout noticed the doll clothes
that she had fashioned herself after the worn and pre-loved toy had come into
her possession. The doll also received a good scrubbing and a new hairdo before
being sent off to be loved again.
The 84-year-old Stout has
refurbished thousands of dolls over the past 35 years. "I just hate to think of
any little child not having a toy under the Christmas tree. I can't think of
anything worse," she explains.
Stout leads a team of "elves"
who gather on Thursday mornings at Riverton Park United Methodist Church in
Tukwila, Washington. The dolls are distributed to children who will have few, if
any, presents for Christmas. This year, more than 200 dolls will be presented to
children in the community near Seattle.
"It's a regular assembly line,"
she notes. Some of the women specialize in sewing doll clothes, others crochet
new booties or fix hair. One homebound woman sews quilt blocks for doll
blankets. The ministry is active 11 months out of the year.
It doesn't take a lot of fancy
equipment or training to revamp the dolls. Stout uses her circa 1922 sewing
machine and patterns from when she made doll clothes for her own daughter, who
is now 61 years old. "What I told the girls when we first started was always
remember to make the dress look like it was the only toy their child was going
to get," says Stout.
If a doll has ink scribbled on
it, the ladies have learned to coat the ink spot with petroleum jelly and leave
it in the sun to bleach out. Because so many of the families that receive the
toys have limited funds, dolls requiring batteries are refurbished so that none
are necessary. Sensitive to a child's concern, battery wells are filled with
plaster so the dolls won't feel empty inside.
A doll is finished when it
looks new again. As Stout puts the finishing touches on a doll she expresses a
frequent wish, "I hope she gets a good little mother."
Many of the dolls are now
donated, but originally, the doll dressers had to scour yard sales and thrift
stores for suitable candidates. Money for supplies is raised by selling
collectible dolls that the ladies come across and fix up.
Right before Christmas, the
dolls are displayed in the sanctuary of Riverton Park United Methodist Church.
The Rev. Karla Fredericksen tells the congregation to, "Pick a doll, and send
your special prayer upon that doll."
And, while most of the doll
dressers never get to see the toys delivered into the arms of excited children,
Stout says, "We just hope and pray they go to children that need them and that
they'll know that they're loved."
*Snider is a
freelance producer for United Methodist News Service in Nashville, Tenn.
News media
contact: Fran Coode Walsh, 615-742-5470, or newsdesk@umcom.org |
