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The article below appeared in the Jump Into Life! e-zine as well as the
Army Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times, and Marine
Corps Times.
www.jumpintolife.net/ezinemilitary.html
Jump Into Life!
Kathie Hightower & Holly Scherer
Volume 13, 2003
Daddy and Mommy Deployment Dolls
We have to spread the word about the Huggee Miss You dolls we discovered
at the Ft. Lewis Bazaar.
These dolls were created out of need by Audrey Storch for her two boys.
Four and seven when she went into the hospital for breast cancer treatments,
the boys would go to bed with her photo clutched in their hands, crumpling
it thoroughly at night. Audrey created stuffed dolls with a plastic sleeve
at the face to slip a photo in.
The idea spread. People started asking for them and a business developed.
Susan Agustin, an Army wife, discovered the dolls when relatives sent
one to her 3-year-old daughter Maddie with photos of her cousins to keep
in front of her.
"When my husband Gene deployed to Qatar, daddy’s photo replaced
the cousins," says Susan. The ‘Daddy doll’ went everywhere
with Maddie — to the commissary, to the movies, reading books at
night. In fact, Gene would call and ask "Where did we go and what
did we do today?"
Maddie’s preschool teacher mentioned that many of the children with
deployed parents needed a doll. And a home-based business was born.
People use them for all kinds of absences, from short TDY trips to long
deployments — to "mom and dad going out" evenings. They’re
a way to help with the pain of a best friend moving to another state and
a way to keep children connected with relatives living far away.
These are simple stuffed dolls with crazy yarn hair that are a huggable
picture frame. They aren’t meant to look like people, but to let
the child connect with the photo.
The dolls come in two sizes and many different fabrics at $10 and $20
each.
(Please note that the article was edited to remove incorrect contact
information.) |
