ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 6, 1995 TAG: 9512060021
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ADRIANNE BEE
There will be many who open up their hearts and give to those in need this
holiday season. Most will be of the unsung variety, but a few have come to our
attention.
Members of the Blacksburg Intermediate Woman's Club have donated sweat
shirts, $200 in cash and their time as volunteers - but most of all, they have
given dolls.
This year, the club members have scavenged yard sales and tuned up their sewing machines to add 73 sharply dressed dolls to the store's toy shelves.
"My friends and I go to yard sales and collect dolls," said Betty Tipsword. "We bring them home, wash them, mend their clothes and make additional clothes for them."
Six years ago, Tipsword donated two dolls to the store. The Woman's Club has since joined her efforts and multiplied her donation.
"Some of those were already donated to the store by others - I picked them up so we could work on them," Tipsword said. The club tries to make sure each doll comes with an extra outfit (when the occasion demands a doll must change her ensemble).
Some club members have given fabrics, others have furnished dolls and doll duds. One member, Marie Bland, returned from a recent trip to Florida with a bag full of dolls. Tipsword started this project in 1989 after reading an article in The Roanoke Times about Mabel Jones who dressed dolls in Blacksburg for the Salvation Army.
According to Tipsword, more than 29 dolls "are waiting at home to be dressed for next Christmas."
When they are all dressed up, thanks to the Christmas Store, they will certainly have a place to go.
Anyone with dolls, doll clothes, doll shoes, even one of a pair of shoes may contribute for next year's efforts by calling Tipsword at 552-3299.
Some smaller people have also done their part. Members of Carol Fischer's day care class arrived at the Christmas Store door last week with bags of pennies in hand. The 1- and 2-year-olds brought the spare change they had been collecting for the store. The lesson Fischer was trying to teach in her day care class, which she operates out of her home? "I just think most of the children are so blessed, as are we, and I think it's a good thing to teach them to give."
"It was the most precious thing you'd ever seen," said volunteer Joyce Hendricks.
The Christmas Store opens for three days of business beginning today.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. Betty Tipsword and Marie Bland (seated)by CNBwith some of the dolls donated to the Montgomery County Christmas
Store. color.