Bellmore Woman A Real Doll
Bellmore dollhouse designer Jean Pollack decided to donate her
creation to Lupus for a raffle, inspired by her young grandniece who has
the disease.
By NANCY HILER
Dollhouses with their miniature rooms and tiny furnishings have
always fascinated Jean Pollack of Bellmore. When decorating a dollhouse,
she says, “It can take you wherever your imagination wants to go.”
Recently, her imagination went to a very good place as she created
her latest dollhouse. She decided to donate it to the Lupus Alliance of
America, Long Island/Queens Affiliate located in Bellmore for a raffle.
Pollack is a longstanding supporter of the organization because her
niece J.C. Bonner works there. Pollack says she was inspired by her
17-year-old grandniece Carole-Anne Bonner, J.C.’s daughter, who has
the disease, to make her dollhouse donation.
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| IN FRONT OF THE HANDCRAFTED DOLLHOUSE donated
to the Lupus Alliance for a fund-raising raffle are, from left,
J.C. Bonner, her daughter Carole-Anne, who has lupus, and
Carole-Anne's grand-aunt, dollhouse designer Jean Pollack. |
An Inspired Donation “I’m happy to donate this dollhouse to help,”
she said. With no children of her own, Pollack has been particularly
concerned about her grandniece’s illness. She said she has seen
Carole-Anne suffer with the disease since she was first diagnosed at age
12. She hopes the dollhouse raffle will raise funds and awareness of the
seriousness of the affliction. “It can affect major organs, sometimes
the kidneys,” she explains. “Chemotherapy is often needed, sometimes
dialysis.”
There is no known cure for lupus, a chronic auto-immune disorder that
can affect various parts of the body, especially the skin, joints,
blood, and kidneys. More than 16,000 Americans are diagnosed with the
ailment each year.
“All proceeds from the raffle will go to the Lupus Alliance’s
direct patient support programs,” Bonner said. These include a
children’s support group program and financial assistance for often
exorbitant medical bills for medications, chemotherapy and other
treatment. “Sometimes the cost of treatment is as much as $10,000 a
month,” Bonner said. She knows well the pain and suffering that lupus
and treatments for it can cause, having witnessed daughter Carole-Anne
struggle with the illness and the debilitating side effects of
chemotherapy and medications.
Designing the Dollhouse
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| THE HANDCRAFTED dollhouse being raffled
off to raise money for the Lupus Alliance |
Pollack, a senior technologist in the mycology lab at NYU Medical
Center, says she decorated her first dollhouse years ago right after she
got married. Her husband bought it for her as a gift, she said, knowing
that she always wanted to put one together. Since then, she has designed
several others, giving them away to the children of family and friends.
“I’m not good at constructing the actual dollhouses,” she said.
She hopes to find another structure to decorate and donate again next
year “if this raffle works out,” she said.
This year’s dollhouse is valued at $1500. “I bought it at a flea
market at the Bellmore train station,” Pollack said. “It’s
unusual. It’s hand-made.” At that point, the house was basically
just a wooden shell, but Pollack felt it had potential. She spent months
refurbishing it and decorating it. Pollack painstakingly redid the house
by hand, inside and out.
The dollhouse has two-stories plus a narrow front porch and a rooftop
patio. It contains five, fully furnished rooms — a living room,
kitchen and small bath on the first level and a master bedroom and a
nursery on the second level. The fine quality of the house comes through
most in its many unique details. These include realistic-looking siding
and roofing, decorative wallpaper, draperies on every window, a carpeted
staircase, and a variety of miniatures such as a fireplace, garden
furniture on the patio, a rocking horse in the baby’s room and even a
pint-sized model dog.
One detail that Pollack’s niece is quick to call attention to is a
miniature painting of a butterfly hanging on the living room wall. “The
butterfly is the symbol for lupus,” Bonner points out.
Raffle Ticket Sales
Raffle tickets cost $5.00 each, six for $20.00, and will be on sale
through December 1 when the winner will be announced. The hope is that
the timing of the drawing will attract collectors and parents interested
in the dollhouse as a holiday gift. “I am adding holiday decorations
for the season,” Pollack said, which will include miniature strings of
lights on the outside.
The dollhouse will be on display at the 13th Annual Walk Along for
Lupus fund-raiser being held on October 15 in Eisenhower Park. Raffle
tickets will be on sale at the walk and at a Blue Knights NY Poker Run
for Lupus motorcycle event on September 24 also at the park. They can
also be purchased at the Lupus Alliance booth at October’s Bellmore
Street Festival, at the Dollhouse Alley in Wantagh and the Miniature
Manor in Garden City, and at the Lupus Alliance headquarters at 2255
Centre Avenue (corner of Sunrise Highway) in Bellmore.
Schools that would like to sell the tickets as part of a community
service program are asked to call the Lupus Alliance at 516-783-3370 or
e-mail them at info@lupusliqueens.org for more information. |
