JUPITER, Fla. (CBS12) — This week’s “Hometown Hero” turned her passion for sewing into a way to bring some comfort to local children during what can be a very uncomfortable time.
Margie Conlin sews adorable, life-sized dogs for kids in the community battling life-threatening illnesses and disabilities.
She’s teamed up with a local nonprofit so that every time she finishes sewing a batch of the beautiful stuffed animals each one is specially delivered to a child in need.
All the magic happens inside a small room in her Jupiter home that she likes to call the “doghouse.”
That’s where she sews, stuffs and safely stores dozens of dogs before they are donated to Chasin a Dream Foundation – a nonprofit supporting local families with kids battling life-threatening illnesses and disabilities.
For Margie it’s a labor of love that started four years ago.
“I had all these Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and teddy bears all done, and some dogs, and my friend said to me what are you going to do with them? I said, “I’m going to take them to the children’s hospital” and she said, “I know someone that would absolutely love all that,” Margie recalls. “So, I got her number, and I called Lori, and she said she’d be right over, and when she came in, she couldn’t believe her eyes.”
Lori Griffith is the founder of Chasin a Dream Foundation.
She says she was immediately blown away by Margie’s big heart and incredible talent.
“This is her way of being able to help children, and I think it’s done just as much for her as it has for the kids,” Lori admits.
The organization customizes hospital backpacks for children who are newly diagnosed with an illness or disability.
See also: HOMETOWN HERO: Local woman donates dozens of bikes to kids in need at Alpert JFS
Each one now comes with a stuffed dog.
“First of all, the child is in a horrible situation, they’re scared, they’re in the hospital, and who doesn’t like something big and cuddly to hold on to,” Lori says. “But I’ve also had some kids come to my house and pick them up, because maybe they’re just getting out of the hospital and, I have one little girl who has brain cancer, and had an eye patch, and she got her dog, and she didn’t let go. I’m telling you these kids name them. They become like their best friends.”
Margie says she loves it when Lori sends her pictures of the kids with their dogs.
“Lori can get the parents’ permission to send me pictures of the children hugging the dogs, and she tells me stories about them like one little boy who wouldn’t go anywhere, but when he got the dog, he’d go everywhere as long as he could take his dog. So that’s what it’s about, and I think it was a blessing for me to be able to do this.”
Margie has made more than 300 dogs for Chasin a Dream warriors.
And at 92-years-old, she says she has no plans of slowing down any time soon.
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