Dollhouses For Kids Battling Cancer

Dollhouses have been used to raise funds for children’s charities for years. Colleen Moore’s Fairy House and the Astolat Castle are two of the best known in the United States. Hundreds of individuals have made dollhouses for individual children and pediatric care facilities. Auctions are held to support kid’s charities. But a woman named Ann, who likes to remain anonymous, has a truly amazing story.

A Small Start

It began as a hobby, became a cause and grew into a movement. In 2006, Ann bought her first dollhouse kit. She had fun making it, but no reason to keep, so she sold and lost money on the deal. Her daughter was interning in the pediatric cancer ward at a hospital in New Jersey. She suggested that the kids might like playing with a dollhouse while having their chemo.  Ann donated the next dollhouse to the unit, and the kids loved. She kept building dollhouses and with her daughter gave them to the doctors to give as gifts to the children as they started or finished their chemo. As of 2014, Ann had made and donated 336 dollhouses to children in 21 states and Canada.

The Angels

But Ann couldn’t get the dollhouses to the kids without the help of her “Dollhouse Delivery Angels.” She has 105 angels in 37 states that help transport the dollhouses from Ann’s home in New York across the country. Each angel drives an average of 489 miles to deliver dollhouses. Check out Ann’s Facebook page to see how you can join their ranks.

Dollhouse Business Helpers

Ann gets some very generous help from many people and places. Penelope, who owns The Magical Dollhouse Company, has a page on her website for people to donate dollhouses at a discounted price. Greenleaf Dollhouses pays for the shipping of those houses to Ann.  HBS/Miniatures helps Ann by allowing people to buy gift certificates on their website. HBS holds them until Ann needs something, then she orders and it is paid for by those gift certificates. And if there are no donations? Ann personally buys the houses and furnishings.

According to Anne, she can create a furnished dollhouse in a week. Each completed dollhouse is painted, decorated, furnished and provided with a dollhouse family before delivery. Her mom died in 2008, and the little bit of money she was able to leave Ann goes mainly for the kids and their dollhouses.

Bond Between Doctor & Child

Dollhouses are created for both boys and girls, though in general, there are not as many donations of miniature buildings appropriate for boys as there are for girls. To personalize the gifting, all dollhouses are first donated to doctors working with children with cancer. The doctor then gives the child the house, who believes it is their doctor who gave them the gift, further cementing the bond between doctor and child.

Dollhouses are also donated to playrooms in children’s oncology wards, Ronald McDonald Houses, Bereavement Centers, and for fundraisers for cancer research. Therapists at bereavement centers use the dollhouses for role-playing with children who have lost siblings to cancer.

199 Dollhouse

This is a link to the Greenleaf page that has images of 199 of the dollhouses that Ann as completed, all delivered by the Angels.

Please comment with the names of your favorite dollhouse charities.

Susan Downing, with Patrick Owens

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I invite you to visit my Etsy Shop where I offer many accessories and pieces of furniture in 1:12 scale.