Viv Sloane

Five ladies attended our November meeting. A delivery was made the end of October.

Our December 4 meeting was attended by eight members. We welcomed returning members Annette Kitto and Vickie Benson. A few of the members brought items for us to go through. Vicky Buholz presented a list of the 180 items she took to Sun Lakes Charities for Christmas giving. Included were 105 Barbies plus a great variety of other dolls, toys and books. Donations to three schools will likely be in January, March and Sept in 2015.

Annette gave a listing of donations for the year:

Books and Beanies – 507, dolls – 107, Barbies – 394, Barbies with books – 50, Groovie Girls – 11, bears – 50, Easter bags – 78 and miscellaneous to Sun Lakes Charities.

Underprivileged or homeless boys and girls are very happy to receive the items we provide. We need some special items for boys: little cars, trucks, soldiers and action figures. Also some specialty Beanie Babies besides bears. We would like to thank all the people who have responded to our needs especially those that don’t live in Sun Lakes. Used dolls have become very expensive to buy even from Savers or Goodwill. The dolls and other items people donate to us are very much appreciated.

As always, we are in need of unbreakable dolls of all types especially 14 inch, 16 inch and 18 inch little girl dolls. They must have hair that we can restyle and not be all marked up. We also have a need for flannel and fleece for doll blankets, lace and other sewing supplies, yarn of all kinds and crochet cotton, gently used children’s books and other small items that we can give to the food bank for distribution to small children coming in with their mothers. We are also in need of small (about 3 inch) baby bottles as we find these are very hard to come by. We have a great many baby dolls that need bottles as we like to include one with each doll. It would even be nice to have a miniature rattle to include. We always include a baby blanket or a quilt with each doll. Even if donated items can’t be used by us, we will find an appropriate place where they can be used. Since we are a Special Interest Group of the Sew-N-Sews, some of the other charities they support can use items that are donated.

For more information about joining our group or to donate items, call Rose Zimmer at 480-895-5148 or Viv Sloane at 480-688-7823.