Palisadians Make Dollies for Haiti

By CINDY SIMON Special to the Palisadian-Post You never know when you’ll be struck with an inspiration that sends your heart racing. This recently happened to me when I was visiting my son, Willie, at his school on Cape Cod in April.   I just love Cape Cod, and every time I’m there, I discover something beautiful, magical and uplifting. Maybe it’s the ocean, the dunes, the green marshes or the down-to-earth people. This particular morning, I was lolling about in a local diner perusing the Cape Cod Times, when I came across an article that caught my eye.   The article told the story of Brenda Kowalski, who was watching the news one evening during the Haitian earthquake crisis and saw newscaster Diane Sawyer pick up a little doll from the rubble. Kowalski thought to herself, ‘Some little girl has lost her special doll in the middle of all this chaos . . . how sad.’   Kowalski decided she wanted to help, so she approached a few of her friends from church with the idea of making dolls. With a few bolts of fabric, Kowalski and many volunteers created and shipped 150 hand-sewn dollies to Haiti. Because her church had a connection with a Salesian ministry in Boston (which was already working directly with the people in Haiti), the dolls were sent to Haiti through this organization.   One look at the photo in the Cape Cod Times and I was hooked. After the crisis in Haiti occurred, I had wondered how I could contribute to the relief effort, and I realized this was one way.   In late May, I returned to Cape Cod and tracked down Kowalski, who could not have been more delightful and enthusiastic about her project. She shared with me her doll patterns and showed me some sewing tricks of the trade.   I returned home and immediately contacted my friend and fellow crafter Dorothy Miyake, and she was equally excited about the project. Miyake, a retired Canyon School kindergarten teacher (she actually taught both of my sons, now 22 and 17), is always up for anything that helps children.   We sent out a mass e-mail to everyone we thought would be interested in working on the Haitian Dollie Project. We announced that our first sewing session would be held on June 9 at my house in the Huntington Palisades. I bought a bunch of colorful fabric and trim. Miyake already had a big bag of brown and black yarn. A friend who is a decorator dropped off bags of extra fabric.   Many neighbors volunteered to bring thread, needles, yarn, ribbon, rickrack and fabric paint. Our neighbors, Peter and Suzanne Trepp, donated boxes of fabric that they had found while cleaning out Peter’s 94-year-old grandmother’s house. They told me Mildred, who had recently passed away, would have wanted it to benefit a good cause.   At our first session, about eight of us worked diligently to make only a few dollies, but we learned a lot. Pat Bauer discovered she was good at sewing on curly hair; Rita Cohen was a pro at cutting out and sewing shorts; Millie Villaros and Deirdre Roney liked to ’embellish’ the dresses; Carole Ruge was amazing with bows; and Carrie Scott and Anne Sacks preferred the simple task of stuffing. Teresa Akerblom and Erin Wales enjoyed painting on the faces, while Colleen Morrissey volunteered to paint a heart on each doll. My housekeeper Sofia Pocasangre, an excellent seamstress, volunteered to be in charge of cutting and sewing the brown fabric for the bodies.   We met weekly through June and July, and as we worked, we chatted about books, celebrity gossip and politics. Every week, more people joined us, ranging in age from high schoolers to senior citizens.   On July 7, our friends in Cape Cod e-mailed us that there was a glitch with the Salesian organization and its distribution center in Haiti. Apparently, the dollies that the Cape Cod group had sent in mid-May were held up at the Port au Prince docks. We decided to look for another organization that could deliver our goods more efficiently and quicker.   My husband, Bill, connected us with AmeriCares, an international disaster relief organization, located in Stamford, Connecticut. The CEO told us about the organization’s soon to-be-launched Adolescent Girls 10-19 Initiative, which, in collaboration with Partners in Health, aims to ‘guide and empower Haitian girls in the areas of education, health services, financial literacy, gender-based violence and protection.’ Part of this initiative will be the creation of Dignity & Action Kits, which will include items such as toiletries, sandals, pens and pencils, notebooks and now our dollies.   We completed 100 dollies and mailed them to AmeriCares’ headquarters. The dollies, along with 200 from the Cape Cod group, will be shipped to Haiti this week.   The Haiti Adolescent Girls Network has a goal of targeting 1,000 girls. Since we have sent a total of 300 dollies, we have 700 more to make. We will start stitching and chatting again in September.   How can residents help?   ’ We could use any donations of extra trim, colorful yarn, lightweight cotton fabrics, brown cotton fabric, thread and fabric flowers. Buttons are not allowed as a safety precaution. To donate, contact Erin Wales at (310) 500-4276, and she will coordinate the pick-up.   ’ We are seeking financial contributions to AmeriCares, so that the Adolescent Girls 10-19 Initiative can attain its goal of reaching 1,000 girls. The cost for this entire initiative is estimated to be $150,000. To donate, visit www.americares.org/HaitiAdolescentGirls.   (Cindy Simon and her husband, Bill, have four children, Cary, an aspiring actress; Willie, who attends Riverview School on Cape Cod; Lindsay, a junior at Boston College; and Griffith, a senior at Harvard-Westlake.)