From the Oregonian
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Lea Lakeside-Scott links offenders to needy girls through objects of childhood affection: dolls
Tuesday, September 19, 2000
By Gil Lopez of The Oregonian staff
- I had a lot of fun making dolls w/ you guys! Have fun in the future! Wish I had a mom.
-- Adrienne
The message is written in a scrapbook filled with thank-you notes, e-mails and photos. Lea Lakeside-Scott says that looking through it usually makes her happy and proud, but that sometimes a statement like Adrienne's last sentence breaks her heart.
She's in the recreation room at Multnomah County's Donald E. Long juvenile detention facility, home to the Hope Dolls Project every Saturday morning. Lakeside-Scott stands at one of two sinks in the center of the room, working with one of the toys and chatting up the girls, all inmates who volunteer to help.
Against one wall, a counter is covered with bins holding dolls -- all dirty, nude and disheveled. She and the inmate volunteers work to refurbish them -- washing them, shampooing their hair, redressing them, doing what they can to make them as good as new -- before donating them to abuse shelters and other homes.
Lakeside-Scott, a systems analyst at the juvenile facility, talks enthusiastically about the people who have written, the donations she has received and how she could use many more, the 400 dolls that have been completed since the program started in April. She relishes the idea that maybe, because of the effort, a girl will get a surprise.
The time and effort, which Lakeside-Scott volunteers, stretch beyond the few hours she spends each Saturday with the inmates and her sister-in-law, Carolyn Kotsovos, a regular at the sessions. She also works to get more donations and has recruited adult inmates at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution to sew doll clothing.
But she said the project gives her the chance to offer the girls some insight, understanding and, most important, a sympathetic ear.
- I was taught to never take anything for granted because you never (know) what you got until it's gone.
-- Tracie
Lakeside-Scott opens up easily and talks about being so poor as a child that she would look with jealousy at all the toys other children had as she and her mother cleaned other people's houses. About being so hungry that she once stood staring into a neighbor's window during dinner. About the abuse she and her three sibling suffered as children, and how she believes it played a large part in all three of their deaths.
And sometimes, the inmates reciprocate.
"She's older than me and she's been there and done that," said Julie, 13, whose last name and the last names of others are withheld because they are minor offenders. "She knows what it's like for a lot of us."
- I'm glad I was able to help with you doll project, it puts my mind on something other than being on the outs & causing trouble. I thank you guys for helping me, and all those little girls that need those dolls. I'm going to try & stay outta trouble so I won't be back.
-- Danielle
At the end of the session, across from the bins holding the dolls that still need work, another counter is covered with the finished products: dolls that have been washed, had their hair combed and been dressed in clean clothes.
As the girls return to their rooms, Lakeside-Scott points to one holding a doll -- each volunteer gets to keep one -- and notes the way she cradles it.
"See how she holds it, like it's a baby?" Lakeside-Scott said. "A lot of them do that. It's like they're little girls again."
Lakeside-Scott said she hopes the doll isn't the only thing the girls take. She asks the girls to write in the scrapbook at the end of every session, and sometimes they let her know these sessions are making a difference. “This is kind of the philosophy of Lea,” said juvenile justice spokeswoman Maggie Miller. “Taking something ragged and damaged and making it beautiful again.”
