One never knows how we will connect with a recipient group who is interested in taking our dollies and colorful teddy bears with them on a trip! Â This time Dollie member Kathy Baxter received a Christmas card from a friend she knew “way back when” in New Jersey, who wrote about her travels all over the world as a nurse with the New Jersey chapter of Operation Smile. Â Of course Kathy connected immediately with her friend, and next thing you know, Operation Smile’s medical team was taking our dollies and colorful teddy bears with them to Honduras!
Kathy’s friend, Norrie, emailed us upon her return:
Hi again Cindy, I hope you received the pictures of the children with their dollies. They loved them! I can’t begin to tell you how excited these little children were when we gave them a present! The older girls loved wrapping and unwrapping the blankets and then tying and untying their crocheted scarves around the dollies necks.
It is such a perfect gift for the children because it is soft and safe for them to hold, especially after surgery. Sometimes volunteers will give the little boys match box cars or hard toys and that is so dangerous, since they tend to put everything in their mouths after they wake up from surgery. We fear that the sharp points on little cars and trucks will tear their sutures apart, so then we have to take them away from the children and that causes a lot of tears! You can only imagine how thrilled my team was when I showed them the dollies!
I am in the brightly colored scrubs in the Holding Area giving the children their dollies. Always a favorite time of mine when I can give a little happiness to children who basically have never had a doll or toy. The poverty level for these children is so low, yet they never complain and they trust us.
Thank you a million times over to you and all of your dear friends who have given happiness to these beautiful children! I would love to continue this tradition for my future mission, if you would be so kind to make the dollies.Â
