8-Year-Old Girl Collecting 1,000 Barbies To Give Away To Chicagoland Children
(CBS) -- A south suburban Richton Park girl is about halfway through her goal of collecting and giving to other, mostly young underprivileged girls, a thousand Barbie dolls, reports WBBM's Bernie Tafoya.
Eight-year-old Josilyn Martin-Richardson loves Barbies and says she has about 18 of her own.
Josilyn and her mother were at the Chicago Housing Authority's Trumbull Park Homes on the Southeast Side Monday giving out a few hundred Barbies.
"I actually gave one of the dolls to a little boy," Josilyn said. "He pointed the doll and I said, 'Do you want it?' and he said 'Yeah.'"
Kellie Martin says she was brought to tears at one point.
"There was a woman who was in her 60s and she had been sitting in the room with us for the majority of the day just kind of watching and she asked Josilyn if she never had a black Barbie doll before so Josilyn gave her a black Barbie doll."
The Martins are collecting new Barbies and money through Paypal to buy new dolls to donate. Donations can be sent using the email address kelliec.martin@gmail.com. You can also drop off Barbies for pick-up from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday at University Church Chicago, 5655 University Avenue.
They received a surprise email today from Barbie maker Matell, who plans to help out in the cause.