Deck the Halls with lots of Dolls....

A great Christmas present to children in need and Nightingale Dolls was given by the fantastic ladies in the American Fork 19th Ward of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! I prepared the doll kits back in late October and they spent their pre holiday season sewing, stuffing and making 100 DOLLS!!! This is an amazing help and made it possible for us to reach our goal for this year's dolls. Here is a picture of me picking up the dolls from Gloria Jensen who helped head up the service project. Thank you so much AF 19th Ward! You rock!

Check back here next week for an end of the year accounting of all that Nightingale Dolls has accomplished and delivered this year. We couldn't have done it without so many helping hands and generous hearts!

Plugging Away....

The good work continues. Just a couple weeks ago, I put together doll kits for 100 dolls - that includes cutting out all the bodies, heads, etc and organization - and some FABULOUS women in American Fork are going to have a service party. Their goal was twenty women with five dolls each - incredible. I'll post pictures and more information once the work is done.

Also, I've been sewing lots of necks and hair recently, trying to finish up some partly finished dolls from previous service parties. I can't wait to sit down at the end of this year and count up all the dolls we've made. I say 'we've' because I'm forever amazed at the willing hands who have stepped up to help. My goal is 1,000 dolls over the next five years (by the time I graduate high school). That would be a minimum of 200 dolls per year. I think we'll easily meet those goals. Who knows, maybe our final count will be over 1,000. Wouldn't that be awesome?!?!?!?!

My livingroom is piled high with half sewn dolls, rolls of yarn, bags of stuffing. It is a mess, but it is really cool.

A Delivery and a Service Friend

Some cool updates to report. First, I was able to make a delivery to the Dove Women's Shelter in St. George, Utah this past weekend. I delivered thirty dolls and hope to be able to send some more their way soon. Also, a big welcome to Blake Beaton from Rigdgecrest CA who made ten Nightingale Dolls as part of his Points Of Light service project. That's awesome - thanks Blake!!!! Blake's mom and my mom went to college together, but I haven't seen him since I was around five! It was neat to have an old family friend join our project. Above is a pic of me making the St. George delivery and a pic of Blake busy at work.

Thank You, Zions Bank!

Some great news to report today! Zions Bank has awarded Nightingale Dolls a grant to help pay for supplies. I got to go to their 'Smart Women, Smart Money' conference in Salt Lake today and was honored to be a grant recipient. I met some really interesting women who have their own businesses and are helping others in our community. It was great to meet these incredible people and I am so grateful for the support. Plus, there were some booths and I got free chapstick!

On the home front, we have had some youth groups all the way from California contact me and say that they want to arrange a Nightingale Dolls Service Party. Awesome!!

Pictures...

I can't figure out how to make these pics look more organized, but you get the idea. Above is from our service party tonight - sewing hair and stuffing dolls. The great volunteers were the Highland 4th Ward Young Women group. Didn't they do a great job? I pre-sewed all of the doll bodies and heads and also pre sewed the hair. It made it go a bit faster tonight as we just had to stuff and then sew on necks and hair by hand. I think everyone had a good time.

The next picture in line is a variety of dolls. Finally, you can see a finished boy and girl doll. I think they are super cute.

Gotta go. It's getting late and I have school tomorrow.

Many Hands...

We recently had a youth service party in my neighborhood. About 60 (ish) children came together on a Saturday morning and stuffed dolls! Some of their parents even helped me prepare for the service party by sewing some of the dolls beforehand. They worked for only one hour and got almost 55 dolls stuffed. Tomorrow I am organizing another youth service party with some older youth (ages 12+) who will work on sewing the hair on those dolls.

Here is a picture of me delivering some finished dolls to American Fork Hospital. Did you know that if your youth group does a 'Nightingale Doll Service Party' then you can be the ones to make the delivery? We even provide the patterns and sewing directions - and in most cases can provide some or all of the materials! Really, it doesn't have to be a youth group that hosts a service party. Maybe your family would like to make a committment of 10 dolls or maybe there are some adults out there who would like to come together on this important project. Think about it and let me know. Oops, I'm late for school....

Welcome!

Welcome! I have started this blog with the hope of reaching out to other youth who are interested in serving others. I want this blog to:

1. Inform others about Nightingale Dolls - who we are, what we do and who is helping

and

2. Inspire others to join in our cause!

We welcome groups of all ages to participate. We are located along the beautiful Wasatch Mountains in Utah and can provide instruction, patterns and even materials!

By way of background, I began this venture last March (07) after completing a 'Master Project' in my 7th grade class about Florence Nightingale. She was amazing! At one point, she met a very sick child in a hospital. The child was alone and afraid. Florence Nightingale didn't have a lot of resources, but she made a quick, cloth doll for this child. I was so moved by this simple act and decided to make my own dolls. I set a goal of 1,000 dolls and went online to research patterns. After settling on a basic, pancake doll pattern I came up with the idea to leave the face of the doll blank and send it with a washable marker. I wrote this poem that goes with the doll and marker:

A doll for you from a secret place
take the marker and draw a face
happy, sad, whatever you feel
then wash it -- change it, as you heal

With love from
A child who cares

Well, I started making dolls. I spent most of this past summer planning, cutting, sewing and delivering dolls. Then other youth started saying that they wanted to help me! How exciting! It is soooo much better to have many hands working on a project like this, so I came up with a pattern and instruction booklet. (I need to figure out how to link to those documents)

This is a new adventure for me. Please be patient - bear with me as I figure out how to blog, how to respond, how to post pictures and instructions....yada, yada, yada. I am only 13!!!!!!