AUBURNDALE, Fla. — A Polk County woman has gotten people to donate more than a hundred dolls for female dementia patients.

Mary Pirillo did the project in her daughter Brittany's memory. Brittany was killed in an auto accident in 2006.

Pirillo has done projects around Christmas each year since her death. Other projects include blanket and toy drives.

Mary now works as a volunteer coordinator for the Good Shepherd Hospice in Auburndale. That gives her a special understanding of the suffering of dementia patients. They often suffer agitation from not understanding what is really happening around them.

Caretakers often provide female dementia patients with very realistic baby dolls. “They do cuddle all the babies,” said Pirillo as she cradled a donated doll.  “But for the dementia babies, it has a smell.” The patients often see the doll as a real baby and focus on caring for it. That seems to give them a calm, positive state of mind.

Once a family member adjusts to the idea of their loved one caring for the doll as if it were a real baby, they have a positive feeling as well. “When they have a family member that has experienced dementia and they witness them nurturing this doll it makes them think of the fact this is how they might have nurtured them as a baby.

"I have seen immediate happiness, an immediate smile,” said social services specialist Laura Weathersby.  “I have seen agitation and then within seconds they are smiling and they are cuddling and holding the baby.

“To be able to witness and see that where they are not agitated and irritated and they are calm and loving, it’s a good thing for everyone,” said Pirillo.