Colorado girl donates 200 dolls for Iowa scoliosis patients
Sydney Black says she wants patients to know they're not alone
By donating 200 dolls wearing back braces, a young Colorado girl is hoping that scoliosis patients in Iowa will know they’re not alone.
When Sydney Black got her first Chelsea doll (Barbie’s sister) and saw she was wearing a back brace, she felt better about being “different”. Sydney was diagnosed with scoliosis at age 4 and has been wearing a back brace for up to 20 hours a day since she was 6.
“Seeing Chelsea made me happy, and taking her with me makes me feel less alone,” says the 10-year-old Parker, Colorado girl.
She wanted to make other patients feel happier, too, so she started Sydney’s Lemonade Stand to raise money to purchase dolls for the hospital where she was treated in Colorado. Friends and family wanted to help, so she and her family started a GoFundMe drive.
“We wanted to get enough to buy 50 dolls,” she says.
Instead, she and her siblings, twin brother Carter and little sister Rayna, with the help of parents LG and Nicole, raised enough money to buy 870 dolls, with help from Mattel, who markets the dolls.
The family donated 200 dolls to two hospitals where Sydney was treated, then brought another 200 to UI Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital on June 24. Sydney’s orthopedic surgeon, Jaren Riley, MD, graduated from the UI Carver College of Medicine and did his residency at the children’s hospital under the direction of Stuart Weinstein, MD. Sydney’s mom also graduated from the University of Iowa.
“A lot of people from Iowa donated to our fundraiser, and we knew we wanted to help the kids here,” Sydney says.
Weinstein was grateful for the donation.
“It’s nice to see that giving spirit in someone so young,” he says.
Scoliosis affects 2-3% of people in the U.S., or between 6 million and 9 million people.
