Abandoned Doll Offers Lesson In Compassion For Hopkins Kindergarteners
HOPKINS, Minn. (WCCO) -- Story time in Ellen Dischinger's kindergarten classroom captures attention. But it's the story the students wrote they're most excited to share, about a doll affectionately named Dolly.
"I felt bad for her and she looked not too good," said student Lyra Anderson.
On a recent visit to the "mud kitchen", which is really a now frozen swamp area near Gatewood Elementary, the kindergartners found a doll. It was missing a leg, had no clothes, and was coated in dirt. It had the look of a haunted doll more likely to be found in a Halloween display.
"When I saw it I thought Oh my gosh, that's so sad. This poor thing got abandoned outside. Maybe I've seen Toy Story too many times," joked Dischinger.
She did her best to clean the doll and the students continued to greet the toy daily, but it was clear that a soaking in a sink wasn't going to be enough to save Dolly. Then, her class had an imaginative suggestion. Send Dolly to a doll hospital.
"I had no idea how to send a doll to the doll hospital. But I remembered emails that we get every spring for the "Dress a Dollie" program," she said.
The program is run through the Hopkins Activity Center. "Dress a Dollie" started in 1988, said program manager Beth Kivett, and is a partnership between the center and the local school district. Every summer, 30-50 dolls from the kindergarten and pre-K classrooms are sent out to volunteers to be freshened up.
"A lot of the outfits get torn or just dirty, and so it's nice to have a fresh doll to start the year,: Kivett said.
There's more than 20 volunteers, mostly retired seniors with sewing skills and a desire to make kids happy.
"I used to make (dresses) for my granddaughters. I enjoyed that as a child and my mother used to sow for me," said volunteer Sheila Anderson.
She's been helping the program for nearly a decade and also recruited her friend, Gingie Wood.
"I have lots of patterns because my mother had so many. So I just look through them and figure out the dimensions and what their waists are and what size they are," Wood added.
Even though volunteers typically fix up the dolls in the summer, Kivett understood the urgency of Dischinger's request.
"There was an emergency," she said with a smile. "We had a volunteer lovingly take it home and really do a lot of work on it. Ended up having to make a custom made outfit because it was missing a leg and had some arm mobility issues."
Dolly still carries the scars of her difficult past. Her missing leg was not replaced and some of the dirt simply can't be cleaned. But what makes her different has become part of Dischinger's lesson. She talked about Dolly's condition with the class when the toy was returned.
"What do you think she needs," she asked her students. Their answer was, "kindness and care to keep her heart going."
Every day during story time, a student takes their turn holding Dolly. She even has a "nest" that the students carefully place her in, then cover her with blankets.
Given that the doll spent so much time buried in the cold dirt, keeping her warm is of utmost importance.
The fact that her leg wasn't replaced served as another teaching moment.
"Our school does house kids in wheelchairs and kids who are amputees, so the more that we're all exposed to the difference, the more comfortable we become and more accepting and kind," Dischinger said. "If we can harness the compassion toward this one object, maybe it can grow into compassion for humans and for animals and for our living world."
Learning the students have grown so loving of the doll touched Anderson's heart.
"We just do (the dolls) and bring them back here and we don't really know what happens to them. It's kind of nice to know a story behind it," she said.
Within the past year, the Dress a Dollie program has taken steps to be more inclusive. Volunteers now make clothing that's better reflects the diverse student body, with some dolls wearing hijabs and other ethic patterns or outfits.
If you'd like to volunteer with the program, you can contact the Hopkins Activity Center at 952-939-1333.
