Sartell women making dolls to make a difference
By Karen Flaten
Way back, when she was a teenager in Minneapolis, Patsy Magelssen, of Sartell, had an opportunity to work in the office of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
“It was just something to do in the summer,” she said, but she never forgot the experience. Patsy got married and lost touch with the Billy Graham organization for a while, but when the opportunity to volunteer came up again in the late 1970s, she remembered how much she had liked working for the Graham organization.
An interesting volunteer opportunity presented itself in Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical Christian organization that provides aid to people in need as a key part of its missionary work. Founded by Baptist Pastor Bob Pierce in 1970, Samaritan’s Purse provides relief efforts across the globe. Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, had worked alongside Pierce for several years, and became President of the organization after Pierce’s death in 1978.
One of Samaritan Purse’s many programs, Operation Christmas Child, sends shoeboxes filled with toys, school supplies, and personal items to locations where there are children in need - whether from war, drought, or natural disasters – all around the world. Patsy has enthusiastically packed and sent shoeboxes for many years, envisioning the delight on children’s faces when they open a box.
A few years back, a friend showed Patsy a doll she was making for another charity, Lutheran World Relief. When the friend gave Patsy one of the dolls, Patsy was hooked. After checking out the pattern for the doll, Patsy began thinking about ways to rework it to use it for Operation Christmas Child. The female doll she was given, although based on a simple pattern, wore a separate blouse and skirt. Patsy worried that the separate clothing articles could easily be removed and then lost. After simplifying the pattern, Patsy began making quantities of the dolls to include in the shoeboxes.
“You see,” said Patsy, “my mother had passed away. And I really wanted to do something in her memory. And my mother always used to say ‘One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.’” Patsy knew that her projects would be made with items that many people would just throw away.
The philosophy that Patsy learned from her mother was enhanced by the trips Patsy took with her husband, a businessman. Through his work, they spent time touring other businesses, and Patsy noticed that sometimes there was a certain amount of product that was left unused, even when a business had an excellent, well-made product. She began to think she could find ways to repurpose these leftovers, especially as she thought about ways to volunteer and donate to charities.
In fact, Patsy became adept at finding low-cost materials to use for the items she made for charity. And she became known for her volunteering efforts, receiving awards, some of which came with a monetary benefit.
“I got an award that came with an $1,100 prize,” said Patsy. “Well, I decided to invest the money and just use the interest for my fabric purchases, etc.” Along with this financially savvy idea, Patsy found that if she located clearance items at a certain store, she could sometimes purchase a large number of the items at a significant discount. The store was happy to get rid of their clearance items, and she got the items for a lower price.
“You have to be street smart and have common sense,” said Patsy.
As she considered the dolls she wanted to make for Operation Christmas Child, Patsy knew she needed a stretchy knit fabric for the doll itself – something like a t-shirt. She began going to garage sales looking for inexpensive used t-shirts. She also searched for donations, making a sign to put up at her church that said “Your old t-shirt becomes a doll,” with examples of the dolls attached to the sign. Donations of old, used t-shirts began to come in. But, when the COVID pandemic hit, it was harder to find used t-shirts. And the donations seemed to dry up too. So when she was introduced to a woman who owned a company that made t-shirts, she knew she had found the answer. Patsy explained what she was doing with t-shirts and the woman asked if she needed any more. It turns out that the company needed a way to dispose of t-shirts that were no longer selling, or which had imperfections. Patsy was very willing to take the discarded t-shirts to use to create her dolls.
The dolls themselves are not hard to make. Each one takes about half an hour. “There’s hardly any sewing and no stuffing needed!” said Patsy. Patsy cuts out hundreds of dresses at a time – mostly made from donated cotton fabric – using pinking shears so they don’t need to be hemmed. Then she sews on a piece of lace, ric-rac, or another piece of trim, and the dress is done. The t-shirts are used to make the bodies. Patsy rolls and knots the fabric for the head, feet and arms. She cuts a slit in the dress fabric for the opening for the head and pulls it through. She adds a bow and a way to tie the dress closed, and the doll is dressed. A few more cuts create hair and feet, and the doll is finished. Patsy decided to also make boy dolls, so she makes a tunic instead of a dress, just a couple slight alterations to the pattern for girl dolls.
When she started out with Operation Christmas Child, Patsy filled the shoeboxes as well as making the dolls to go into them, but now she has decided to focus on just making dolls. She has made a goal for herself of making 100 dolls per week, so that even while taking two weeks off per year, she can donate 5,000 dolls in a year. Her initial goal of making one million dolls may be unattainable, she knows. But by last week she had completed and donated 43,000 dolls since she began making them in 2018.
“It’s a fun way of showing God’s love to a little child in a refugee camp!” said Patsy. The shoeboxes are often sent overseas, but they are also sent to areas hit by natural disasters in this country. On the Samaritan’s Purse website, donations are being solicited for disaster relief for both Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and the southern United States.
“What I like best about Operation Christmas Child is that each box has a brochure telling about Jesus – his life, his miracles, his love and his resurrection,” said Patsy. The brochures have been translated into the many different languages used where the boxes are sent.
Patsy has found that the best way for her to package the dolls is in a small baggie. She puts one boy and one girl doll into a baggie, and then closes it with a sticker. And getting a group of ladies together to help package the dolls has been a fun experience. Just last week, she had a wonderful group of women helping put dolls into baggies at Country Manor in Sartell, where Patsy and her husband live. Then Patsy delivers them to the drop-off location so they can be shipped.
“What I make is just filler,” said Patsy. “You see, they check all the shoeboxes before they ship them to make sure there’s not something in there that could break [or cause some other problem]. Sometimes there is space for additional items, so then they add my dolls,” explained Patsy.
Patsy is exuberant about her doll-making hobby, and thrilled with all that she is able to do, even at her age.
“I am 83 years old and I can still be a change maker!” she exclaimed. “I am so lucky to be able to do what I enjoy. I love doing it. I love it because it’s a little part of me and it is love!”
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