Members at Hillcrest Christian Reformed Church in Denver and Eastern Hills CRC in Aurora, Colo., are knitting dolls to distribute to children in poverty-stricken areas all over the world. To date they have knitted over 400 dolls.
The pattern is from a group in Holland, Mich., and came to Colorado by way of Verla Klaver of Eastern Hills.
“I first became aware of the dolls in North Carolina,” Klaver said. “Two ladies from Michigan were making them. I took the idea back to Denver when I returned home and shared it with some friends at Hillcrest.”
Shortly after receiving the pattern, about four women started knitting dolls. Soon Winnie Tjeerdsma, a member of Hillcrest, called Klaver to ask her what to do with the dolls they had made.
“They had made 250 by that time,” Klaver said. “I was overwhelmed, thinking each group would have lots of places to donate them. I called my mission group at Eastern Hills and they wanted to send some to Zambia.”
Tjeerdsma now also distributes dolls to people heading to places such as New York and Kenya.
“We really want to spread the word to missionaries and people who go to other countries,” Tjeerdsma said. “We don’t want to pay postage costs to send them wherever they have to go. We want to let the kids have toys, especially in these poverty-stricken areas, because some of them don’t have anything.”
The number of dolls knitted has surpassed expectations. “It is an easy project for people who commit . . . and these dolls go to a good cause,” Tjeerdsma said. “We get very creative with the dolls—some are brown, black, and white; some have pigtails and some don’t even have any hair.”
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Estafania deLeon
