Woman, 83, sews dolls for young ER patients
BUTLER TWP — The bears won't stop coming. Every week, 45 to 50 of them show up at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 201 W Jefferson St. It's been going on for 14 years, and if Dottie Slomer, 83, of Butler Township has anything to say about it, the bear invasion will continue for another 14.
That's because Slomer has been making the bears for children who are patients in Butler Memorial Hospital's emergency room.
Two of her fellow St. Mark's Lutheran Church members, Vonnie Neigh and Toni Tassey, got Slomer started on her longtime project.
“That makes it real easy,” said Slomer. “because when I go to church I just take a bag of bears with me.”
She turns the bears over to Tassey and Neigh.
“Vonnie works at the hospital as a volunteer. She asked me if I was interested in making bears to give the children in the emergency room,” said Slomer. “Toni takes them to the doctor's office where she works.”
Slomer said following a precise schedule and using three sewing machines allow her to single-handedly craft 50 bears a week.
She cuts the bears from bolts of cloth and sews them on Mondays, turns them inside out on Tuesdays, stuffs them on Wednesdays, finishes sewing the dolls on Thursdays, adds their bows on Fridays and has them delivered to St. Mark's on Saturdays where Neigh and Tassey pick them up for delivery.
“After getting a bag of bears ready for delivery, I say a prayer for them. Not just the bears but the children,” said Slomer.
John Slomer, her husband of 65 years, said, “She's sitting there watching TV and her hands are always working.”
“There isn't an evening she doesn't sit on that couch and sew,” he said.
“I can make 45 to 50 a week at least until my arms give out,” she said.
Asked how many hours a day she spends on crafting the dolls, she said, “I don't know, it just depends on when I have to stop to cook.”
Checking on the meticulous records she's kept of the dolls she's crafted, Slomer believes she's made 20,000 bears since starting the work in 2005.
“I didn't plan on this but after 20 years of craft shows, I couldn't just sit there,” she said, adding she first started sewing at age 13 so she could make her own clothes. During her craft show career, she turned out tree skirts and table runners among other items for sale.
She said the hospital sent her flowers when her production reached 10,000 bears.Her fellow St. Mark's Church member Vonnie Neigh said she was the one who got Slomer into the bear business.“I'm a volunteer at the hospital and she happened to go to my church,” said Neigh. “My sister and I used to make the bears and we asked her if she would make some.”“They go to kids that come into the ER. They're to take their minds off why they are here and what's going on,” said Neigh.Slomer's bears are faceless for a reason, Neigh said.“She can't put anything on it like button eyes, that a child could choke on,” she said. “That's why their ribbons have to be sewn on.”Slomer's bears have a long life around the hospital, said Neigh.“Actually one of the candy striper's mothers still has one, and one of the girls in the hostess shop has one,” she said.Slomer's seen firsthand the effect her work has had on people.In the hospital for her own health issues, Slomer said, “I've had people coming saying 'You are the lady that makes the bears.'”John and Dottie Slomer hit garage and craft sales looking for bolts of cotton cloth.She said a bolt generally costs $14 a yard and she can get six bears out of a yard of cloth.“When I run out of fabric, I say a prayer and somehow a donation comes in,” she said.Recently her prayers were answered when her daughter-in-law, Emma Slomer, a mail carrier in Ohio, arrived with a pickup truck full of fabric.John Slomer said, “There was a lady on her route who was a craft maker who had gotten sick. She couldn't use the cloth. Her husband was going to throw it all out.“What she couldn't use, she gave to our church quilters because the only thing she uses is that cotton blend,” he said.Although she's suffering from Addison's disease, which is characterized by weight loss, muscle weakness and fatigue, Slomer has no plans to stop delivering her 50 bears a week for child patients.“I'll do it as long as I can, as long as I can see and use my hands,” she said.
