ST. CLOUD, Fla. – After seeing the devastation Hurricane Helene brought to the Appalachian region, a Central Florida mom and her two daughters felt compelled to give back.
Angela Tilsher, along with her two daughters Kenzie and Kayleigh wanted to come up with a way to help little girls who survived the storm a way to process their emotions.
“We started trying to find a way that we can help little girls to feel safe again and to deal with some of the trauma that they’re experiencing,” Angela Tilsher said. “And mostly the anxiety that we knew was coming from something so traumatic — and so we came up with giving it a doll.”
That’s when the Tilshers came up with ‘Anna the Appalachian Doll.’
“We fix up American Girl Dolls and we refurbish them and then we decided during that time -- what if we gave them a story,” Tilsher said. “And so we created the story of Anna the Appalachian Doll who goes through what they went through and now will be their friend to help them through it.”
News 6 first learned about the Tilshers after seeing a report from David Bednaug on CBS Mornings when the girls brought dolls to North Carolina.
Kenize and Kayleigh have their own American Girl Dolls who have been on this journey with them. “I just love that we get to help them out and feel happy and they get to be not as scared as they were before,” Kenzie Tilsher said.
We learned about the entire process. The Tilshers are given information about the girls who are requesting a doll, then they work their magic to pick out a doll that matches just a few characteristics like hair color and age.
Kenzie and Kayleigh then pick out a hairstyle and clothes for each doll. Kenzie specializes in hairstyles, while Kayleigh sorts through plastic bins full of colorful, patterned outfits that would be the best fit for each doll.
In addition to the outfits, the dolls are packed up in a carrying case with a mini-Bible, a brush, a teddy bear, a puppy dog, a pajama set and a coloring book — but it’s not your typical coloring book.
“I made a coloring book of Anna for the children to go with the dolls,” Tilsher said. “This is just a book of affirmations. This way they can kind of process their emotions in a safe way that’s not threatening.”
Since Christmas, Tilsher said they’ve sent around 200 Anna dolls -- each one sent with love and care.
“Everything is well thought through with them,” Tilsher said. “That somebody thought so much of them that they’re not just getting a random doll, they’re getting something that was thought out for them.”
Tilsher also wrote a book based on social media posts she saw after Hurricane Helene in different Facebook groups. She wrote the book after joining a Facebook group where people posted possessions that had washed by their homes looking for the rightful owner.
One of the items posted was a quilt — Tilsher was so moved she wrote the book ‘Miracle of the Mountain Quilt: An Appalachian Christmas Story’ which is based on these stories.
Proceeds from the book help the Tilshers raise funds to be able to purchase more dolls to refurbish for their Appalachian Doll Initiative.
To purchase the book, you can click here.
To learn more about the Tilshers and the Appalachian Doll Initiative and if you’d like to help donate, click here.
