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HOPKINS, Minn. (WCCO) — Story time in Ellen Dischinger’s kindergarten classroom at Gatewood Elementary School captures attention. But it’s the story the students wrote that they’re most excited to share.
It’s about Dolly.
On a recent visit to the “mud kitchen,” a swampy area near the school, the students found an old doll. It was without clothes, covered in dirt and missing a leg.
“When I saw it, I thought, Oh my gosh, that’s so sad, this poor thing got abandoned outside,” Dischinger said.
Her class had an imaginative suggestion: Take the doll to the doll hospital.
“I had no idea how to send a doll to the doll hospital,” Dischinger said.
Doll hospitals don’t exist, but Dischinger did reach out to the Hopkins Activity Center.
“There was an emergency,” said Beth Kivett, the center’s program coordinator.
One of the program’s at the center is called “Dress A Dolly,” a 34-year partnership with the local school district in which volunteers take 30 to 50 dolls from the kindergarten classrooms and freshen them up with new clothes before the new year.
This time, the volunteer was Kivett.
“I ended up having to make kind of a custom-made outfit, because it was missing a leg and had some arm mobility issues,” Kivett said.
While Dolly still carries the scars of her difficult past, the children in Dischinger’s classroom ensure that she’s never alone.
“Every day, every time we’re on the rug, somebody different is holding her,” Dischinger said.
The young students are the authors of a compelling story in which love and care are the lessons.
“If we can harness the compassion towards this one object, maybe it can grow into compassion for humans and for animals and our living world,” Dischinger said.
In the last year, the “Dress a Dolly” program has been focused on making culturally-appropriate clothing to best reflect the diverse student body in Hopkins schools.
Source: New feed
