PORT ANGELES — The Promise of Spring Doll Show will offer antique and modern dolls and teddy bears, along with activities and raffles, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
The theme of the show at the Vern Burton Community Center at 308 E. Fourth St., is Dolly Roundup.
Admission will be $2. Each person who brings a canned food item for the Port Angeles Food Bank will receive a free ticket for one of several door prizes. Raffle tickets are $1.
A craft table, free with admission, is planned for children to make paper dolls.
Forty vendors will offer dolls, bears, furniture and accessories at the show.
This is the 22nd annual show put on by Just Dolls of Washington, a small club of about 15 members based in Port Angeles.
“We wanted to bring children back into the world of dolls,” said Dori Beachler, president of Just Dolls of Washington.
Dolls and stuffed bears “are our companions as we navigate the world” as children, she said.
The grand prize drawing will be for American Girl doll Tenney and accessories.
Tenney Grant is a doll that depicts a Country and Western singer. In the book devoted to her, she talks about having the courage to get up in front of an audience, Beachler said.
“She writes her own songs and the guitar we are giving away with her actually plays,” Beachler said.
The drawing will benefit the Peninsula Home Fund.
“The Home Fund donation is very important to our club,” Beachler said. “We’re supporting local people who also experience trial in their lives” just as the children depicted by the American Girl dolls often have special goals or special needs and challenges, Beachler said.
The stories that accompany American Girl dolls explain the history of the time and what it was like to live then. For instance, the story of one doll is that she lived in Hawaii during the Pearl Harbor invasion.
The book “talks about what it was like to go through that,” Beachler said.
“Doll and bear collecting is usually an expression of reliving our past, understanding the history of dress and culture of the past and present, and help with creative play and expression of emotions in children,” Beachler said.
Hair styling will be available for dolls that are at least 18 inches tall for $2 each. Parents or grandparents can bring children and their dolls for a hair makeover while they shop for new clothes and accessories, Beachler said.
For more information, contact Beachler at dori music@yahoo.com.
