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Hospital Dolls |
Friends of the Karamandaneio Children's Hospital
A group of English speaking volunteers living in Patras donate cloth dolls to the local children's hospital.
How it started
The Idea: I had read an article about a group of women supplying hospital dolls to a children's cancer ward in the United States. I was able to contact a volunteer who was thoughtful enough to send me a pattern for the doll and hospital gown.
Contacting the hospital: I then contacted the social worker, Eleni, at Karamandaneio who was willing to handle the distribution of the dolls. One thing I was a little apprehensive about was how to make sure that the dolls would be given to the children and not wind up in the hospital personnel's homes. Eleni decided that the best solution was for her to distribute the dolls personally and to retain an itemized list of the names of all the recipients. This system has worked out to everyone's satisfaction.
How the group works
In November 1998 a number of my English speaking friends met for the first time at my house to see what the dolls would entail. We planned on meeting for approximately two hours every two weeks and we would follow an assembly line mode of production. I would purchase the muslin and stuffing and draw the patterns on the fabric. Judy would then sew the bodies and stuff them and the rest of us would be responsible for decorating and dressing the dolls. The goal was to distribute 12 dolls a month.
On Friday June 2nd, we donated out 1000th
doll to the hospital and the local newspaper printed our photograph center front
page for the occasion. 
The membership consists of 8 core members who live in the Patras area
permanently and additional members who are temporary residents to the area.
Check out photographs of our night on the town.
Some years we also sew bunny rabbits to give during the Easter holidays. Click on the hyperlink to view the bunnies.
To view photos of the members' night out on the town click here