The Giving Grace Project started with a simple act of kindness when Beth McCullen’s daughter, Laura, gave her baby doll to a woman with Alzheimer’s at a nursing home several years ago.
“[Laura] has always loved visiting nursing homes,” McCullen said, “and we went to go visit Hermitage gardens, and she took her favorite baby doll with her whose name was Grace.”
While visiting Hermitage Gardens, one of the residents wanted to hold Laura’s baby doll, McCullen said. Laura decided to let the resident hold the doll where she then rocked her. Laura realized that the woman was growing fond of the doll and that she didn’t want to give her back, McCullen said.
“I kind of looked at Laura like, you have a choice here,” McCullen said. “and Laura just decided to let the lady keep the baby.”
McCullen said as her mom, she was happy that Laura made a kind gesture. It was a couple of weeks later that the mother and daughter revisited the nursing home to witness that the lady still had the baby doll sitting on her bed.
It was an experience that was stored in the McCullen’s memory bank, she said. It was just a few months ago that McCullen was scrolling through Facebook and saw a post that was shared where there was a program where a group of women had taken baby dolls to a nursing home in Kentucky.
McCullen said the residents at the Kentucky nursing home were women who were dealing with Alzheimer’s, dementia and other memory disorders. The women who received the baby dolls in Kentucky seemed to have the same reaction from the resident that Laura had given her baby doll too.
“It was just a really incredible thing,” McCullen said. “I was crying my eyes out.”
McCullen decided to share the post with the thought of wanting to do the same act of kindness in Oxford. From the shared Facebook post, a couple of McCullen’s friends responded saying the idea was great and wanted to help.
“From the day on, I put out some feelers and people responded,” McCullen said. “We ended up sharing a link on Facebook of a baby doll, and it was the exact baby doll that Laura took to the nursing home.”
Through the link, patrons were able to purchase the exact baby doll that could be sent to McCullen’s home for distribution among nursing homes in Oxford.
McCullen and her daughter, Sarah McCullen, were running errands one day when McCullen decided to stop by Oxford Health and Rehab Center to see if the center would be interested in the project.
McCullen met with Karen VanWinkle, the activities director, who had actually seen the exact same post of the Kentucky doll project. McCullen asked VanWinkle how many dolls the center could use, which VanWinkle replied with number 25.
“Sarah and I both looked at each other,” McCullen said, “because in the car before we went in, I had just told Sarah that I bet 25 is our number. For some reason, I just kept thinking 25.”
The goal of the project was 25, but they ended up receiving 42 baby dolls.
McCullen said it was crazy how many people ended up wanting to be involved in the project. One day she checked her Facebook inbox and had a message from a man she didn’t even know who wanted to donate 5 baby dolls to the project.
RSVP, a senior citizen volunteer group and the Girl Scout troop 13616 also decided to lend a hand in the project after the leader contacted Mrs. McCullen.
“[The troop] decided to make little blankets for the dolls,” McCullen said. “They sewed these little square blankets that we wrapped around the dolls.”
This past Monday the troop joined the McCullens at the Oxford Health and Rehab Center to help pass out the baby dolls that had been collected and wrapped in the troop’s blankets.
“[The troop] was sweet and excited, and it just made it a really fun afternoon having all the little girls there,” McCullen said.
Sarah said that while distributing the dolls at the center, that many of the residents already baby dolls, so it isn’t a new concept.
“The feeling of being needed is a human basic need,” Sarah said. “We need to feel valued and needed, and that we have a sense of purpose.”
By giving these nursing home residents baby dolls, the project has given them a sense of purpose, Sarah said. The residents now have something to care and love for, which allows them to have something to pay attention to due to being in rooms where they might not have as much human interaction as they might want or need.
“The fact that we can give them [purpose], give them something to talk to, to love, is an incredible feeling to watch them receive it,” Sarah said.
The project has another donation with Hermitage Gardens on Wednesday, May 16 at 3:30. For those who are wishing to purchase a doll for donation can visit, ‘Lots to Cuddle Babies,’ and send the dolls to Beth McCullen’s home at 160 County Road 313 Oxford, Mississippi 38655.
By Talbert Toole, associate editor of HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at talbert.toole@hottytoddy.com.
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