The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Children whose mothers are clients of the Center for Great Expectations were recently the beneficiaries of a Manchester woman’s hobby.
The children on Sept. 22 received a delivery of 10 hand-made knitted stuffed animals and dolls made by Joyce Cunliffe, a retiree who said she picked up the craft to keep her mind busy after she retired.
“When you get older, you have to keep your body and your mind busy,” she said.
Cunliffe said she makes the toys, each of which take about two days, while she watches television. Cunliffe estimated that she’s made about 300 dolls over the years.
Cunliffe said she has had many offers to buy her creations, which she has been making for “quite a few years,” but she turns them all down, she said.
“They’re for the children,” Cunliffe said.
The toys were delivered to the Somerset facility by a family friend of Cunliffe’s, township resident Susan Schwartz. Schwartz, an oncology nurse at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, said she has been making similar deliveries for Cunliffe – to the hospital – since 2008.
“Joyce is one of those people who likes to stay busy,” Schwartz said. “She definitely has a deep creative spirit.”
In the hospital, the toys are usually given to children who are about to undergo MRI tests. Cunliffe said there’s no metal or plastic in the dolls, so they’re safe for use in the machines.
“Then they take them home with them,” she said.
At the Somerset center, the toys will be distributed to children of mothers who are overcoming addictions, breaking away from abusive home lives, and trying to get their lives together.
“It’s a tremendous gift for our residents to realize that the community cares about them, that it’s not just our staff, that the entire community embraces them,” said Peg Wright, the center’s president.
Wright said donations from the community are not uncommon.
“If we didn’t get donations, we’d be in big trouble,” she said. “My diaper bill alone is like $700 a week.”
The center currently has eight residents in the adult program and will have 12 in the adolescent program by the end of October, she said. There are also 26 housing units for women with children, and about 80 women outpatients yearly, she said.
“A lot of people, a lot of unmet needs,” she said.
Cunliffe said it was “more than likely” that she’d be making future donations of dolls to the center.
“I have about 10 made now,” she said.
To make donations to the Center, call Noreen Whittemore, the Center’s Community Outreach Manager, at (732) 247-7003, ext. 25.
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