The culmination of a weeks long doll drive took place for the Angie's Babies organization on the morning of May 15, as volunteers teamed up to deliver dozens of dolls to Alzheimer's patients at seven nursing homes across west Texas.
The organization had hundreds of dolls to pass out after an out pour of support from the community.
One of the founding members, Mary Wright-McCourt, explained to us today what she hopes these dolls will mean to their new owners.
"They might not remember what they did the day before or the week before, or the year before, but if they were a parent of a mother then having this baby doll or being able to cradle this baby doll can bring back those memories," said McCourt.
McCourt who's father and grandfather both suffered from Alzheimer's before they passed, told us that being a caregiver is in her nature, and when she lost her father in October she became determined to reach out to Alzheimer patients in her community, "Some friends suggested they saw they did a baby doll drive up north and said why don't we do this in Midland/Odessa and I said absolutely."
Several volunteers also lent a helping hand on the special delivery, including Debra Holt, who found comfort in how her mother responded to a baby doll while battling Alzheimer's.
"It was absolutely the greatest blessing in our life because what it allowed me to do was, leave her for periods of time to work, and she had someone with her, she felt that was her baby and that she needed to take care of it," said Holt.
Holt said when she found out about what the Angie's Babies organization was doing for the community she immediately reached out, " I wanted to meet the people, I wasn't happy to just send in a donation." Holt continued, "I came to them with pictures of my mother holding her baby doll, and they just enveloped me, they just drew me in, and that's why we're here today."
McCourt also told us that they're dozens of baby dolls that were separated from today's deliveries so they can be delivered to Alzheimer's patients in hospice care at a later time.
