Retirement home residents often have to leave a lot behind when they move to assisted living – like pets.
That’s where Kelly Shepard comes in.
Shepard, who works at Sweet Home’s Wiley Creek Community, makes stuffed animals for residents in an effort to bring joy and a reminder of younger years and the pets they’ve had.
Shepard has worked at Wiley Creek as a medical aide and resident assistant for almost eight years. She says she gives the animals to the residents because she loves them and they are her family.
“They have such a delight in it, especially if they ask for a certain kind of dog and I make that kind of dog.” Shepard said. “It’s just a nice thing for them to have in their room. They enjoy it a lot.”
Shepard began sewing when she made her 4-year old daughter a rag doll. Soon after she completed a clown and continued making toys for her children. Other people admired them and began asking for her dolls.
When Shepard and her husband moved from California in 1992, her doll sewing expanded even more. She and her husband opened three Oregon Carpet stores in Sweet Home, Lebanon and Albany and Shepard managed the Lebanon store. She set up a sewing room in the back where she sewed dolls in her spare time and put them in the front window to sell.
The dolls sold quickly.
She eventually quit sewing dolls because she was working full time and they were time consuming and expensive to make.
Now Shepard only makes dolls when requested and has begun making realistic looking stuffed animals both for sale and for gifts. She uses the proceeds from any sales to buy supplies for the residents’ animals.
The animals are made from old stuffed animals she takes apart and recreates.
Shepard is working her way through the building to supply the residents, especially the women, with their own stuffed animal. She has made approximately 25 so far.
She enjoys making the animals. Many of the animals she makes for the residents are tailored after an animal the recipient remembers fondly from their youth. The Wiley Creek residents cannot have pets so the animals bring a smile to their face.
The animals are a big deal, she said; residents bring them out and show them to each other. They are a topic of conversation and interest to the residents.
Shepard made a Persian cat named Snickerdoodle for resident Jerry West.
“I put it in my room so the silhouette looks exactly like my cat,” West said.
Elenore Phillips, who received a dog modeled after her husband’s dog, said, “I couldn’t believe the likeness. (Shepard) is amazing.”
Tony Rowlan received a pomeranian, named Cinder.
“She’s my lucky dog.” Rowlan said.
Shepard also shares her music with the residents during her spare time. Growing up, her mother taught her and her sister harmony and they sang together. Now Shepard sings for the residents a couple times a year
She says her goal is that the animals “make them remember the dog that they had in their young age and what it was like to have a pet.
“They are very grateful for it.”