Maybe the reason is time and what is said of its ability to heal even the deepest wound. To me, Jessica Bachus seemed a completely different person.
It’s been a year since we chatted. I thought back then she was in deep despair. It had been two years since she lost her daughter, Kenzi, at birth.
She needed something then to channel the pain and the loss. What she came up with was a plan to do what she could not for her own daughter: She would give other girls a doll at Christmas. Yes, she would give them to needy girls.
That first year, she gave away 200 dolls. Six hundred dolls were given away the following year. I spoke with her last year, shortly after she established her nonprofit, Dolls for Daughters.
She was hoping to give away at least another 600 that Christmas. She ended up giving away more than 1,100.
The 33-year-old Denver resident said she had found a new purpose in life. Dolls for Daughters had a five-member board of directors and some 65 volunteers and was expanding the giveaway, having formed the Toys for Boys toy drive.
This year, she said, the goal is to collect 3,000 dolls and new toys for needy children. The charity, to date, already has collected about 2,000, she said, adding she knows that will not be nearly enough, not in these economic times.
Her organization will distribute the toys to needy children Dec. 11 at Kim Robards Dance, 1387 S. Santa Fe Drive in Denver.
“Three thousand toys this year is ambitious,” she said, “but I think it’s doable. Any child in need will get one until we run out. No questions asked.”
She has three children now, daughter Bailey and sons Kamden and Karson, born in 2008 and 2009. She says they have “shown me I can be a mother after a loss.”
She was struggling, she said, when we first met. And then she decided she could “make something good from my loss, my tragedy.”
In those first years, people would always ask why she was limiting the giveaway to girls. She was so deep into honoring Kenzi, she said, that she had never considered the question.
Having two boys turned on the light, Jessica Bachus said.
“I wanted to help children at the holidays. It just took awhile to realize that that includes boys too,” she said.
She set with the board the 3,000-toy goal at the first of the year. They held a spring bowl-athon that raised some $5,000 to purchase toys. A silent auction and other events raised another $5,000.
Supporters rallied to the effort. Almost all of them have kids and understand what it means to make a difference in kids’ lives, she said.
“What better gift can there be than to see a child smile because they have received a new toy?” she asked.
The foundation has 25 drop off locations for new and unwrapped toys from Fort Collins to Pueblo, with most of them in the Denver metro area. Specific locations can be found at .
“This has been a journey,” Bachus said. “I miss Kenzi tremendously. I have put my life into wanting to make a difference because of her and what she has meant to me by giving back to this community.
“I consider it a blessing.”
Bill Johnson writes Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Reach him at 303-954-2763 or wjohnson@denverpost.com.
