Every February, the Dollie ladies clear the table of Dollies and Teddy Bears, and pour out buckets of paper hearts, doilies, stickers, plastic flowers, felt, yarn, colored paper, ribbon and more to create one-of-a-kind handmade Valentines.  This year we gave over 200 paper Valentines to patients at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital and UCLA Santa Monica Hospital’s Teen Cancer Zone and the Geriatric Unit.  We also created boxes full of Valentines for residents at the Opica Adult Day Care Center and Fireside Health Care Center in Santa Monica.
The Dollie ladies feel, “Everyone deserves a special Valentine on Valentine’s Day!” Â And we sure try to make that happen!
Dollie lady Rhonda Green helps us tremendously by cutting out our Dollie and Teddy Bear bodies on her Die Cut machine.  This ensures that the bodies are exactly alike, which makes sewing the two sides together so much easier.  Rhonda had piles of left over fleece which she cleverly cut into small teddy bear shapes… not knowing what we could use them for but wanting to make the most of all the fabric.  We loved incorporating these small teddy bears onto Valentines for UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital! Thank you Rhonda!
This year one of our Dollie ladies, Carolyn McGraw, stitched a beautiful Heart shaped quilt for us to auction off for Valentines Day.  We collected $143.00 and Vicki Miceli was the lucky winner! All proceeds go to Dollies Making A Difference to help us pay for needed supplies such as fabric, stuffing, yarn, and thread so that we can make “extra special” Dollies and Teddy Bears.