Temecula Wishers & Dreamers Gathers Seamstresses To Sew Gowns For Hospital-Bound Kids

TEMECULA, CA —Sometimes, it helps to have a buddy with you when you're in a scary situation. That's what Wishers and Dreamers Hospital Gowns founder Pamela Babek believed when she founded her Temecula-based charity in 2013.

Since then, she's amassed a small army of seamstresses and volunteers to stitch and send handmade gowns for stuffed animals or doll companions of pediatric patients worldwide. It's a personal touch for kids and parents facing difficult times.

Babek has called upon her troops to cut, sew and ship hospital gowns for dolls and stuffed animals needed across the country. At 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 5, volunteers were asked to meet at Michelle's Place: Breast Cancer Resource Center, 41669 Winchester Road, Temecula. Helpers were asked to bring scissors, sewing machines and a dessert. Sandwiches will be provided.

The goal is to fill a request for 150 gowns to give to patients for Valentine's week.

"If you can't sew, you'll be asked to cut out patterns or to make handmade Valentines to go along with the gowns," Babek said. Beyond that, there are many opportunities to help.

Wishers and Dreamers Hospital Gowns handmakes each gown for comfort items: be they doll or bear, for children suffering from illness, disease, disabling condition, or fighting medical challenges.

"In 2013, I was an advocate for childhood cancer awareness, and a little girl in Georgia was diagnosed with a brain tumor," Babak said. "We made a doll that was made to look like her, with a chemo port and more to help her understand what she was going through."

Dolls such as that were cost-prohibitive for the budding charity.

By comparison, the hospital gowns they made easily slipped over dolls and stuffed animals that the children already had or that hospitals had gifted to young patients.

Even teenagers need the comfort of a buddy when they are going through MRIs and other scary hospital procedures.

In early January, a Vista Murrieta High School junior varsity soccer goalkeeper suffered an injury while warming up. She was dizzy, numb and her neck was hurting. That injury led coaches to call an ambulance and she was transferred to the Loma Linda Children's Hospital emergency room. There, the doctors gave a teddy bear with a soccer gown to help her through the emotional process of tests that were ahead.

As of 2020, Babek's volunteers have made and shipped 28,000 cloth facial masks and 18,000 hospital doll gowns. That has depleted their fabric stash.

According to Babek, their work is thanks to volunteers across the Golden State, from Temecula to Irvine and beyond. An Orange County senior sewing group, "Sewing with Heart," has also helped from the beginning.

"Many other individual and group volunteers have worked diligently to hand-craft gowns, tailored to our children's (and their family's) request for a special gown," Babek said, adding that local volunteers are always needed.

"Our volunteers are essential to us," she said. "They are the ones who make all the hospital doll gowns. They put their hard work and love into each gown in hopes that it helps a child with what they are going through with their medical issues."

For more information visit: www.WishersandDreamers.org or their Facebook page.