What a doll: Prints Charming Ltd. in Long Grove is bursting at the seams with fabrics, crafts and patterns. Earlier, there were also about 80 handmade Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls in the store.
Those dolls will soon be in the arms of young patients at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
Earlier this year, Prints Charming offered a Raggedy Ann dollmaking class led by Joanne Murphy of Arlington Heights. Store owners Steve and Joan Attenberg of Buffalo Grove expected only about a dozen people to sign up for what they called the Raggedy Ann Club.
Instead, 80 people enrolled. Participants got free lessons in exchange for a promise: They had to make at least one doll to donate to Children’s Memorial.
Now it’s up to Andrew Fordonski, 9, of Geneva to pass out the dolls to children in the hospital’s oncology and pediatric AIDS units. Andrew was treated at the hospital for a brain tumor. He will complete the giveaway by Christmas.
“The Raggedy Ann dolls are like owning a teddy bear,” said Steve Attenberg. “There are all kinds of hospitals that need something like this.”
Kelly Womer.
