Comfort Doll Project was established in May of 2006 by two Vancouver women who came up with a crazy idea over a cup of coffee one rainy afternoon. The idea was to try and make a difference in the lives of people living in abject poverty in Africa. My friend and I were both inspired by Bono’s T.E.D Award acceptance speech (see my first blog entry for a video of this speech) in 2005 just before U2 came to Vancouver. We met for coffee and brainstormed ideas on how to help those in Developing Countries, in particular Africa. After tossing one idea away after another, we figured out something that was crazy but do-able.
-photo courtesty of Icross Canada
I was knititng Comfort Dolls for ICross Canada – they use the dolls instead of packing foam when they send shipments of HIV/AIDs medicines to African clinics. Once the meds are unpacked, the dolls are given to the local children, many of whom are HIV positive and/or AIDs orphans. For some children, the dolls are the only thing that is truly ‘theirs’, and can bring some small measure of comfort to them.
We decided to use the dolls and go after celebrities - asking them into posing for photos holding the dolls. We’d then find the various fan clubs and set up an auction and auction off the photos; sending the money to World Vision or Icross Canada.
-photo courtesy of ICross Canada
So, we contacted William Willabond, ICross’ local founder, and asked for permission to use the dolls in this manner. As one of his lady volunteers was the lady behind the doll idea, he had to clear it with her first, but she said yes, and so did William.
All we had to do now was find a way to contact various celebs and ask if they’d be interested in helping out! Sounds easy right?
Come have a read and see how we’ve been doing so far. Because of the way WordPress is set up, if you want to read it chronologically, you have to start at the oldest blog entry first – not the blog entry at the top of this page. So…. I’ve added links to our ‘chapters’ in the blog roll to the right. —>
Also, look for links (up top) to other ‘pages’ for more info that isnt quite blogging material – and eventually a page about the ones that got away!
