Written by Carolyn Kotsovos

Lea's Hopes, Dreams, and Dolls

Lea sat on the front step and watched the little girl across the street. She didn't know her name, but she watched the girl as she unfolded an umbrella, laid it slanted on the ground, and then put a blanket draping over the front for an opening. Lea realized she was making herself a little fort to play with her dolls inside. Lea just stared. She prayed that the girl would invite her to play. She did not.

She wanted so desperately to just hold one doll, to touch the pretty clothes, and to play house with the little girl. She had never had a doll and had always wanted one.

Growing up in a family that was extremely poor and abusive did not provide for much, let alone dolls or toys. There was hardly any food and Lea had to begin working at the age of five.

Her mother worked for a ribbon factory and Lea's job was to puff the ribbons up in the boxes. When she wasn't doing this, she was cleaning rich people's homes with her mother and sister, and eventually graduated to ironing and picking berries year after year.

Lea Lakeside-Scott describes those early years; how her father made them work every waking moment. If they were not working, they had to go to bed.

With sadness, disappointment, and some anger she tells me of the years she had been beaten and how no one did anything about the marks all over her body.

She ended up a single parent raising two girls who, she made sure, never went without a doll. Sometimes, someone would come along and help her a little but most of the times she was alone. Now Lea says, "We need to help these children that are having children. We need to help them throughout their lives, not just at Christmas." She doesn't just say this, she means it.

She worked hard to complete college and raise her children in a manner other than she had experienced. Her children grew up and Lea became a grandma. She married the man of her dreams when she was 46 and is currently employed as a computer technician. But still, she felt unsatisfied and unfulfilled, as if life had not enough meaning.

She approached the volunteer coordinator for the Donald E. Long Detention Center in Multnomah County, Oregon about spending her Saturdays working with the girls in detention on dolls. Her goal was to have the young girls take broken dolls and fix them up and then donate them to little girls of low-income and domestic violence homes.

First, the girls would be giving back to the community. Secondly, she felt that the little girls would have something they could cherish and something that would ease some of the pain in their lives. Lastly, it would show the older girls how you take something that is a little ragged and worn and make it BEAUTIFUL while building up their self-esteem.

The volunteer coordinator came up with the name The HOPE DOLLS PROJECT. Lea wants it to become The HOPE DOLLS, PLANES, AND TRAINS PROJECTS.

In just the very short time that HOPE DOLLS has been in existence, Lea has gotten a group of Eastern Oregon Correctional Institute female inmates to make doll clothes for the dolls. Many people throughout the country are beginning to donate, but not fast enough for the needs.

The juvenile detention girls have been fixing the dolls up on Saturdays with Lea, and then the dolls are given to domestic violence and child abuse homes.

Lea felt this would make a full circle. The adult offenders help the juvenile offenders who help the children experiencing pain (hopefully to deter them from getting into trouble when they get older). Her dream is to have the programs operated by people who share some of the same experiences as the offenders in their early lives. Each one of these groups would understand and help each other.

Lea gets very excited and you can see the HOPE in her eyes as she exclaims, "What a concept! They all help one another, while they help themselves, and guess what -- WHO BENEFITS - EVERYONE AND ESPECIALLY THE PUBLIC."

The girls look forward to Saturday mornings. This is a time for them to laugh, talk, and be themselves for awhile in their very regulated world. They have someone to talk to who makes no judgment of their lives, but who tries to direct them along the correct path.

It isn't hard to get Lea excited when she talks about this project. She'll tell anyone who will listen, "Wouldn't be it just marvelous if we could get women and men all over the country in correctional institutions to help us in this program? The women could make doll clothes and accessories and the men could make wood or other toys for the boys. The girl juvenile offenders could then fix up the old dolls and and the boy offenders could paint or otherwise fix the other toys donated by the public."

I watch her as she can hardly contain herself in her excitement. She continues with, "Think of the little boys and girls who would get these dolls and toys. Won't it be just wonderful to see the joy on their faces?"

I almost detect a tear in her eye and wonder if at that moment she is remembering a wish or hope she had when she was younger. This has now become LEA'S PASSION in life; To make a difference in at least one person's life. A woman once wrote Lea wanting to help and she added at the bottom of her note:

"I am only one, but still I am one, I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. - Helen Keller."

I am pretty sure that is how Lea feels now. Her goals are five-fold:

1. She hopes she can help women in correctional institutions feel better about themselves and see how kind other people can be and how they can help others.

2. She hopes she can help juveniles in detention centers to feel this way also and maybe change the direction of their lives.

3. She hopes she can help children in domestic violence situations to ease the pain as their mothers try to improve their lives.

4. She knows she helps people like herself who have gone through similar type of experiences but when you ask her about it, she kind of smiles and just says, "it's my little secret, how it helps." I have a feeling it's not such a big secret.

5. She hopes that in t he entire process of the above, she can also involve the "normal" public to understand why some things happen to certain people and therefore, maybe they will be a little more understanding and also help.

Lea's dreams and her intentions are now becoming a reality as the Hope Doll Project continues to blossom and grow with the help of volunteers donating, time, materials, space, or whatever means they have to help.

Since this story was written, Lea's vision has really taken shape and is making a difference in the lives of many youths. Perhaps, others will duplicate her vision and begin their own programs in other locations patterned after what Lea is doing.

If you would like to send Lea an email you can by clicking here.