By Jeni Hankins
On Saturday, July 13th, I ran my third toy adoption and free doll repair event here in Nashville! When I first arrived in Nashville, I bought a suitcase full of bears with me from England. I sold these at modest prices on my CD table when I played a concert at NashYarnFest – a knitting festival. Because all of those bears found homes, I was inspired to schedule two more events and found like-minded collaborators in Experimart – a gallery and retail shop operated by my longtime friend Bryce McCloud, a Nashville letterpress artist.
I ran an event in June where I offered to repair dolls and bears for those who brought them on the day. I repaired a Bitty Baby which was a challenge because I had to sew by hand through plastic, but I did it! That was also my chance to see if people would like to buy refurbished Our Generation and MyLife (Walmart) dolls. I sold four dolls and felt really pleased that these little plastic friends didn’t end up in landfill. When I find them, they’re often dirty, have no clothes, and their hair is wild. I love cleaning them and scouring second hand clothes and shoes for them.
I had more publicity for my last event and I was thrilled that five people brought six different plush animals to be repaired. I’ll always remember the faces of the children and adults who were able to take home mended toys. I also re-homed plush toys and dolls again by offering them at kind prices.
Experimart is keeping a selection of my plush toys to offer on an ongoing basis. Their facility doesn’t have enough temperature control to allow me to keep plastic dolls there, so I will offer them to my followers via the internet or store them safely for any events I might hold next year.
One of the great things that happened after my doll hospital day was receiving a picture and several movies from a parent. His daughter Clara went home with a pram, doll-sized highchair, two plastic baby dolls with accessories, and a plush cat. They found the best little mother in Clara. She saw them immediately when she walked into my event. She just started playing with the dolls, pram, and highchair. She got out the doll diapers and little baby doll sized toys and started taking care of them and inventing her own little world with them.
I gathered these toys and furnishings from three different places – all Facebook Marketplace sellers. So, between six people – the sellers, me, Clara, and Clara’s Dad – we saved all these plastic toys from the landfill, we kept things in circulation, and we made a little girl happy. The doll highchair is at least 40 years old and still going! This was my dream for yesterday and my dream came true!
I am so happy when I see dolls, bears, and toys re-homed and loved, so this has been a special part of my summer. I felt the spirit of the DCGB with me the whole time and really appreciate your inspiration. Jeni jeniannhankins@gmail.com