DALLAS (AP) –They sit merrily at a big, round table, working like an old-fashioned assembly line.
One woman makes the patterns. Another cuts out the fabric designs.
Several women start sewing or gluing on the decorative trimmings.
Then they turn the process over to Yaffa Bat-Yam, who puts ribbons around the dolls’ necks before sewing the dolls together. She leaves the bottoms open so the rest of the women can stuff giant white balls of cotton inside. The bottoms are stitched carefully by hand.
Still, they aren’t done.
The dolls are passed on to Gloria Young, who paints a face on each one.
And finally the finished products are handed off to Penina Weiner, who loads them into her car for special delivery to the needy.
One year they made 1,000 dolls, teddy bears, turtles, cats, dogs, bunnies, and snowmen. Last year they made 755, plus activity books, booties, and more. That’s on top of about 50 dolls that they sent to the American Red Cross in New York City after Sept. 11.
Not bad for a dozen women whose ages range from 69 to 91.
“The work they do is amazing,” says Lisa P. Little, director of volunteer services for Parkland Health & Hospital System, the beneficiary of the women’s handiwork. “I don’t know what we would do without them.”
The women are part of the Retired & Senior Volunteer program at the Jewish Community Center of Dallas. They started making the dolls seven years ago, says Young, coordinator of the volunteer program.
The older women’s work brings joy to the younger women giving birth at Parkland Memorial Hospital. But it also adds meaning to their own lives. “They need a purpose,” says Young. “They need to feel needed everyone does.”
Sharon Balaban, senior adult director for the JCC, agrees. “It’s wonderful,” she says. “It’s not only the socialization they enjoy but the fact that they have a sense of purpose.”
The dozen women gather for two hours every Monday morning at the center. The lineup: Shirley Goldstein, 74; Esther Lazarus, 82; Edythe Raffel, 91; Cornelia Wasserman, 71; Rita Stollon, 72; Rose Wall, 87; Sally Roberts, 90; Freda Weintraub, 88; Anne Sigel, 90; Ms. Bat-Yam, 73; Ms. Weiner, 82; and Young, 69.
Recently the group was joined by volunteer Sidney Soskalne, 78, who seems to be right at home working around so many women. “All I do is stuff these dolls,” says Soskalne, a former musician. “I volunteered to do anything they wanted me to do…Anything that helps other people is very good.”
The women say he’s doing a fine job. “He’s our best stuffer,” quips Bat-Yam.
Bat-Yam took over as the group’s lead seamstress six months ago after a key volunteer, Esther Levy, died. “It was like, ‘Oh, my. What are we going to do? We’ve got to keep it going,’ ” says Balaban. Levy, you see, was a perfectionist, and the women figured it would take five volunteers to replace her.
Bat-Yam, a former apartment manager and decorator, started volunteering two years ago. And she loves it. “I take some work home, and I sew and watch TV,” she says. “I can sew for hours without thinking about it. It’s a good feeling because I know where the dolls are going.”
Most of the dolls go to Parkland, where about 17,000 babies were born last year, Little says.
“About 85 percent of our mothers at Parkland] are on Medicaid, which means they are at poverty level,” says Little. “We’re dealing with the working poor. That means they have to work two, three or maybe even four jobs to keep a roof over their heads. They’re poor, but they’re working hard and trying.”
The women not only deliver dolls to Parkland, they also bring handmade activity books in which children can draw, color and connect dots. “We use these activity books for the mothers who are in labor who sometimes have other children waiting outside because they had no one to leave them with. So this keeps the other kids occupied,” says Little.
The children like the books. And the mothers also like the other gifts that the women from the Jewish Community Center bring. Weiner, for instance, crocheted more than three dozen caps and slippers for newborns this year. She started doing that every year after her husband died more than 30 years ago. Now she and her daughter, Sarah, also enjoy hauling the goodies to Parkland every month.
“We all do it because it’s important,” Weiner says.