From Pacific Palisades to the World

By Sarah Shmerling | Managing Editor

Since 2010, locals have been traveling the world with Dollies Making A Difference—as far as North Korea, Tibet and Dominican Republic—to share the joy of Dollies and Teddy Bears, stuffed toys that are handcrafted in the Palisades, with children. The foundation, known as DMAD, was created by Huntington resident Cindy Simon and friend Dorothy Miyake in 2010 after a sizeable earthquake struck Haiti.

The Palisadian-Post checked in with seven Dollie Ambassadors, the volunteers who deliver stuffed Dollies and Teddy Bears crafted in the Palisades to children around the world.

For more on the history of DMAD, see “Palisades Dollies Make a Differences To Children in Need Worldwide” from the June 24, 2016 edition of the Post.

Elizabeth Volpicelli

As a pre-medical student studying at USC, Elizabeth Volpicelli traveled locally to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Para Los Ninos Elementary School, and abroad to Tijuana, Mexico and the Dominican Republic to deliver Dollies and Teddy Bears.

On Jan. 2, 2016, Volpicelli went with Global Medical Training, an International Humanitarian Organization that provides free medical and dental services to underserved populations in Central America and the Caribbean, and 23 other USC students to Santa Domingo and Santiago Rodriguez, Dominican Republic where they spent four days in rural villages, setting up free medical clinics that serviced over 600 people.

“Throughout the day, I scanned the room to find an age-appropriate child who seemed to need an extra hug from a Teddy Bear,” Volpicelli said.

Volpicelli shared that for this trip, she packed two suitcases: one filled with scrubs and medical supplies, and a second filled with candy, toys, games and Teddy Bears from DMAD.

“This mission trip gave me more than I could have ever imagined,” she explained. “It reminded me to appreciate the things I have and the opportunities I have been given.”

Volpicelli, a resident of the Huntington since she was 2 years old, is beginning medical school in August of this year. After graduation, she said she would like to become a physician and active community leader in disadvantaged communities.

Andrea Boddicker

Andrea Boddicker became a Dollie Ambassador in 2011 through her work as executive director of the Hearts with Hope Foundation, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit with a mission to provide medical, dental and humanitarian assistance to children with congenital heart disease in the underserved global community.

“Being a Dollie Ambassador has truly made me appreciate the ‘little things in life’ as I see children with virtually nothing so delighted when handed this adored gift,” she shared.

Boddicker has delivered Dollies and Teddy Bears to young patients who have just undergone heart surgery, children who have been in a hospital ward for months or parent-less children in orphanages in Lima and Arequipa, Peru; San Salvador and Metapan, El Salvador; Manila, Philippines; as well as over 70 remote towns and villages in these countries.

A moment that that Boddicker said she will never forget is when she brought a bright blue bear to a surgical patient who unfortunately died two months after the delivery.

“One of the possessions his mother kept to remind her of her son was that bright blue bear,” she said. “It gave him so much joy during the few short months he had it and that same bear continues to give his mom so much comfort today.”

Debra and Haylie Wollitz

Mother-daughter duo Debra and Haylie Wollitz have traveled to Nepal twice as Dollie Ambassadors with the Unatti Foundation, a group dedicated to help the children of Nepal, especially young girls.

Debra has worked with the foundation for about six years; Haylie met Stephanie Waisler Ruth, the founder of the organization, 10 years ago when she was doing her World’s Fair project in sixth grade at Village School.

“I am on the board of directors for Unatti and planning to take over the Unatti Foundation one day,” Haylie, a student studying photography at Parsons in New York, explained.

In March of 2016, Debra and Haylie visited children living at a brick factory in Bhaktapur, Nepal.

Nepal has some dusty corners: “When the girls brought dolls to the brick factory in Bhaktapur, the dolls were the only color,” Haylie said.

“The girls mostly survive on hand-me-down donations, so it was nice to give them something made especially for them, something new,” Debra shared. “Each is a one-of-a-kind work of art, thanks to the commitment of Cindy and her group.”

Chantal Prunier

When Huntington resident Chantal Prunier delivered Dollies and Teddy Bears, she needed special permission.

Two of Prunier’s trips as a Dollie Ambassador have been to North Korea.

“My objective was to reach children who would not have been in contact with foreigners prior to my arrival,” Prunier shared of her first trip, which was to the agricultural commune of DongKong, northwest of Wonsan. “They had clearly never seen dolls before and were a little unsure at first about what to do with them.”

Prunier explained that North Korea only allows a few NGOs to carry programs on its soil, including OXFAM, USAID and Red Cross, but she said that the “donations must be left outside North Korea and there is no assurance that the objects or services will reach those they are intended for.”

During her second trip, Prunier was accompanied by her 18-year-old daughter and a friend. This time, she delivered Dollies to an orphanage.

“The three of us were allowed to work for half a day in the orphanage that received the dolls,” she said. “These children, we found, were warm by nature and immediately understood and showed appropriately kind feelings to our Dollies.”

Prunier said that there is “nothing like being a Dollie Ambassador to North Korea” and that she believes “local authorities understand the value of our service.”

Prunier has also made Dollie deliveries to Lhasa, Tibet; other provinces in China; Thimpu, Bhutan; and Jaffna, Sri Lanka. She is planning on returning to Tibet this spring as an ambassador, and hopes to take trips to Japan, South Korea and Hawaii with Dollies in the future.

Pooja Parameshwar

Pooja Parameshwar, a recent graduate of UCLA, has traveled to Uganda twice with Medicine for Humanity as part of the organization’s annual fistula camp. Parameshwar traveled as MFH’s social media volunteer and facilitated communication between the organization and DMAD.

She reported that the Dollies and Teddy Bears that she delivered were a source of “immense comfort”—for both the children at the camp and their mothers.

MFH provides fistula surgery and recovery care services to women with obstetric fistula and other childbirth injuries, as well as training to local medical providers, through a partnership with the Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda.

“Mothers, women who had endured unimaginable life circumstances—many were refugees, or had gone years without care, or had lost children due to obstructed labor—smiling, laughing, playing, hugging,” Parameshwar shared.

Because Parameshwar spent two weeks in Uganda for the camp, she saw the relationship between kid and Dollie develop.

“I saw that these kids formed real relationships with the dolls, bringing them everywhere, putting stickers on their faces, changing their clothes,” she said, and added that their mothers played along with them. “They are such beautiful tokens that can be appreciated no matter what age, gender or circumstance, connecting individuals across countries and cultures, in times of immense need.”

MFH will return to Uganda in September of this year for its annual camp.

Bill Simon

DMAD Founder Cindy Simon’s husband Bill traveled to Mongolia nearly two years ago with some friends to climb in the Altai mountain range.

“We went with a guide into one of the most remote areas of the world where very few people live,” Bill explained. “We went to appreciate the countryside’s extraordinary beauty and do some serious climbing.”

While he explored, he had three Dollies tucked into his backpack.

“I had been given strict instructions as a Dollie Ambassador to find them a home with Mongolian children,” Bill said.

As the trip went on, Bill became worried that he wouldn’t find a child in the remote area. He said that the group passed by yurts and the occasional shepherd, but no children.

Then, on the final day, he saw a boy and a girl that he said looked around the ages of 5 and 7. He handed each of them a Dollie, and they smiled as they hugged their new toys.

“We could not speak each other’s languages, but no words were necessary in our fortuitous, if small, celebration of international understanding,” Bill shared. “‘To give is to receive.’”