Bonnie Pittl, who is the coordinator for volunteer activities for the city of Kettering asked the Kettering Centerville Club to do trauma dolls for "Make a Difference Day" October 23rd. In early September when we learned of this request I started handing out bags with fabric and patterns at Kiwanis meetings, and our members stepped up to take them home and cut out dolls. A number of other groups heard about the doll project and wanted to help stuff dolls, so we had to have enough materials and activities for numerous folks who had not stuffed dolls in the past. Another challenge was that WalMart is no longer carrying the fabric and stuffing we used; it was more expensive at JoAnne Fabrics, but at this point that was our option. I sent an email to our members, and armed with their coupons, they cleaned out all the boxes of stuffing on a weekly basis while I used my coupon to buy entire bolts of fabric!
Ralph Daniels is our chairperson for Community Service, and he and I worked closely with Bonnie to organize this program. We were given a room at Town and Country Shopping Center - a former store location, it had lots of space, good lighting and wonderful windows to show off our activities. I requested a number of banquet tables so we could set up six stations. We had two cutting stations, three sewing stations (some ladies brought their sewing machines), clipping and turning stations, labeling stations, several stuffing stations, sewing up the leg opening stations, and finally a table where the ribbons and pens were added. Experienced Kiwanians were assigned to each station to help the novice volunteers. We put a large table out in the corridor where folks walking in the mall could see it.
We had volunteers from a number of different organizations, including a group of Physician Assistant Students from Kettering College of Medical Arts, and some folks who just saw us in the hall and asked if they could join in. Our volunteers ranged in age from pre-school to octogenarian. The KCMA students had learned suturing in their classes that week so I asked them to help with the hand sewing as well as the stuffing. I was amazed at how well this project went. The experienced Kiwanians provided great guidance to the new doll stuffers. Everyone adapted to moving from one area to another, based on the needs. Several people commented this was just the kind of group they are looking for and we hope to gain some new members as a result of our exposure. More than once I heard a comment - "thank you for giving me a chance to still feel useful, to be able to do something for someone else."
In a three hour period, from 9 am - noon, we made 240 trauma dolls! This brings our total of dolls to over 800 since we began this project in 2007. We are still delivering dolls to Kettering and Sycamore Hospital Emergency Rooms, Children's Hospital and Care House. Incidentally, our club also helped with two other projects that day - yard work for seniors and the backpack program.
On behalf of our club thank you to the Foundation for funding our doll project. Your support has made it possible for us to provide dolls for many more children as well as give those who work on the project a chance to make a difference.
Submitted by Tallye McCall, co-chair of the hospital trauma doll project, Kettering Centerville Kiwanis Club
Annual Report