Trauma doll production team is busy in their workshop.
Vicki Baker
The Kiwanis Club Robson Ranch Trauma Dolls project started around 2011 to comfort children in traumatic situations who are experiencing illness, injury or emotional stress. The children are given a doll to hold onto to help them feel more comfortable while undergoing evaluations and treatments. Not only do the dolls provide security, they also offer doctors and nurses a way to explain medical treatments to their pediatric patients. Once the children are released they keep the dolls. If they need to return to the hospital, they have “someone” who has been there with them before right by their side.
The dolls, called “trauma” dolls, are simple sewn colorful cloth figures stuffed with cotton-like synthetic fiber that feel like a soft pillow. They come in a variety of shapes including people, bears, monkeys and donkeys. Each doll has its own charming personality inspired by the fabric used to make it.
Members from KCRR gather for about two hours on the third Wednesday of each month at 1:00 p.m. The Blue Bonnet Room of the CATC serves as their workshop. Before the dolls get delivered to the hospitals they are cut out from bolts of cloth, sewn, stuffed and faces hand drawn. Once completed the dolls are donated to Presbyterian Hospital in Denton.
The project’s goal is to make a minimum of 20 dolls per month, which the club has more than achieved this year. KCRR anticipates the trauma doll project to expand as the needs of children continues to grow. There are many other organizations in the Denton community that could use these dolls. However, it’s a matter of adding more volunteers to increase doll production.
Want to help with this project or many others? Come join the Kiwanis Club Robson Ranch every first and third Friday at 8:30 a.m. in the clubhouse. For more information contact Carol Rauhauser at [email protected].