GLEN RIDGE, NJ — The Glen Ridge Women’s Club hosted its eighth annual My Favorite Doll Tea on Sunday, March 13. According to Jill Simmons, the club president for the last two years, the tea has become such an integral club event that it seems to have been around for much longer.
The tea has been essentially unchanged over its few years, Simmons said.
There is still the upstairs doll salon where a little girl’s favorite doll can have her hair set. Also upstairs there are stories read by Princess Belle, a character from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.”
And in the ballroom, there is a high tea of finger sandwiches, lemonade or tea, and fancy cookies. Girl’s Club members of the Women’s Club did the hair setting and served the tea. The princess was also a Girl’s Club member, Glen Ridge High School sophomore Lily Nicles, whose mother, Dayna, was tea chairwoman. There were also the 25 raffle baskets including two American Girl dolls waiting to be drawn.
According to Simmons, an American Doll gives a girl a positive image of herself. The doll can be contemporary or from another time period. The two dolls at the raffle were Lea and Samantha. Accompanying the dolls, there is a brief description of who they are.
On the cover of a book which was pried from her box, Lea is said to be going to Brazil where her big brother Zac works studying the rainforest.
“Disappointed in herself, she longs to show Zac she is as brave and bold as he is,” the cover reads.
Samantha is a doll dressed in fashion of 1904. The book for this doll remained tightly fastened to the box so a description was unavailable.
One thing that was new at the tea was the backdrop for the raffle tables. It was a representation of Cinderella’s castle as immortalized by Disney. Over 200 people attended the event, the proceeds going to various charitable organizations.
More photos inside, Page 6
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