From Sew On
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Coming Attractions March
LAURA TAYLOR
Perhaps for the first time, Lea Lakeside-Scott understands hope. It wears the face of a doll, once loved and discarded, given new life—and given to a child to be loved again.
Working as a computer troubleshooter for the Multnomah County Donald E. Long Detention Center in Portland, OR, Lea remembers a childhood of poverty and abuse when she yearned for a doll to ease her unhappiness. It’s that memory that fuels her current passion.
Hope Dolls began in April 2000. Its mission is to create a support network that reaches out to children of abuse and poverty, and girls and women in correctional facilities. Beginning with used, donated dolls, girls at the detention center clean and dress the dolls in clothing made by women in correctional facilities and volunteers. The dolls are then delivered to children in shelters, mental health facilities and low-income housing projects.
“I wanted to make a circle where the women at the correctional facility help the girls at the detention center, who in turn, help the children.”
To continue the circle and the support to the girls once they’re released from the detention center, Lea is setting up a “safe” place where they can volunteer time making clothes with the help of volunteers from the community. “This way the girls realize that the world isn’t against them, and that people do care for them.” The hope is that the girls will work back into the community instead of ending up in another correctional facility.
Lea hopes the program will continue to expand and is overwhelmed by the outpouring of donations she’s received. If you would like to help the Hope Dolls Project, see“Source” below.
In its first seven months, the group had reconditioned and donated more than 500 dolls in the Portland community.
SOURCE
If you would like help Lea make a difference, donations of dolls, doll clothing or accessories can be sent to Hope Dolls, Dept. SN, Box 33621, Portland, OR 97292, (503) 252-7228. For more information on how you can help, visit the Web site www.hopedolls.org.
