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Many little girls grow up playing with dolls, and for one young lady, the broken one she received as a gift became the seed for a ministry.
Eighteen-year-old Leah Barcus, a Regent University student from Fredericksburg, Virginia, was gifted Samantha, her first American Girl doll, when she was just 11. The only problem, Samantha, a used doll, had a loose leg.
“I was like, ‘Well, how do you fix that? How do you fix your dolls when they’re broken or have something wrong with them?'” she wondered.
Fortunately, Leah had a friend who collected dolls and restored them. “So she brought over a couple of her dolls and we worked on them and I was like, this is really neat,” Leah added.
That’s when she got the idea to start Joy Doll Hospital, where she takes used American Girl dolls, restores them, and gives them to girls in need.
“And I can repair dolls that have been ‘well loved’ and give that to girls less fortunate that may not have a chance to get one or that would need that hope and that joy,” she said.
Today, “well-loved” American Girl dolls are donated from all over the country. The day of our interview, I helped Leah open several boxes, many packed with not just used dolls but colorful clothes and accessories. And behind each unique doll, a desire to put a once cherished doll into the arms of a young girl who needs to know she’s not alone.
One letter that was sent with a doll says, “I’m glad I found you. my girls are grown and moved away, and we got this American Girl doll as a hand me down from my niece many years ago. My oldest daughter was kind of into dolls, and so she decided to donate it to Joy Doll Hospital, and she hopes it’ll go to a little girl who will love her.”
One young girl was so moved by the mission of Joy Doll Hospital that she went even further.
“She had a cow that she raised, and she sold the cow and the funds from the cow she donated to Joy Doll Hospital, and she sent us a little note, and that was so amazing to see,” Leah told us.
Thanks to the Joy Doll Hospital, many young victims of Hurricane Helene received dolls following some of the worst flash-flooding to hit the Southeast. About 40 dolls also made their way to refugee camps in Ukraine to help little girls dealing with the ongoing war there.
Unfortunately, Leah usually doesn’t get to deliver the dolls personally.
“We are catering to these kids who do have to be in safe places or removed from their homes or different situations they’re in, and you can’t directly meet them or interact with them. But I’ve come to realize that’s okay because God knows what’s happening in their life. I don’t have to be the one that gives them that,” she said.
Before shipping them out, each doll gets a thorough cleaning, tightening any loose limbs or parts, washing and brushing the hair, plus what Leah calls “the fun part”.
“So a lot of it’s, it’s kind of like fashion design. It’s like, okay, which outfit’s going to look good on this doll? I like to match the eye color, and that’s the fun part is designing, picking out what’s been given,” Leah explained.
The whole process can take up to 10 hours, depending on the doll’s condition, and Leah says each doll is prayed over. As for naming the dolls, she leaves that to the new owners.
“We actually give the girls a certificate. So, every certificate has a line, they can name their own doll, they can write in the eye color, the hair color, and then it has little rules about how to take care of the hair and the doll itself. So, we give each of them, we call a new birth certificate,” she said.
Each doll comes with extra outfits, accessories like a hairbrush, a mini-Bible, and a story of how Jesus restores us.
“That’s the message that we’re sending them, just like your doll is broken and is restored through restoration and fixing up the toy, this is also a correlation to how Jesus Christ restores us as human beings,” Leah said.
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Since Joy Doll Hospital began six years ago, Leah estimates nearly 400 restored dolls have been given away, and she wants to expand in order to reach as many girls in crisis as possible. Their new trailer will help, by allowing them to take Joy Doll Hospital on the road.
“It’s going to be the Joy Doll trailer, and we’ll keep the dresses and stuff donated in there and it can be a mobile thing as well. We can take it to events and different things. We’re very excited for that as well,” she said.
Leah says her biggest and best surprise is seeing the joy, both from the girls receiving the dolls and those who give them.
“There was a 104-year-old woman and she sewed doll clothes, and I would visit her and she actually donated, she would sew a bunch of clothes and she would donate them to Joy Doll Hospital. And that was the surprising part, out of all of it, you never know who’s going to come in with whatever story they’ve brought along in their life and add to the bigger story and the big picture of God’s work in this,” Leah said.
Joy Doll Hospital is always looking for donations and volunteers. If you have a used American Girl doll you’d like to donate or would like to host a doll drive in your area, go to joydollhospital.org for more information.
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