Denver Shop Using Love Of Dolls To Raise Money For Charity

DENVER (CBS4) - A doll shop is helping to raise more than $20,000 for charity. Turn of the Century Antiques may be a small shop on Antique Row in Denver, but it is big online with 50,000 followers worldwide.

"Every week we develop breaking news and entertainment news for doll collectors," Rachel Hoffman, owner said.

Like many businesses, the pandemic has taken away customers, but here, it's also taken away the woman who started it, Hoffman's mother, Diane.

"My mother got (coronavirus). Both my parents were hospitalized at the same time," she said.

Along with other complications, Hoffman's mother passed away in April, leaving her the shop.

"We have needed a new roof. We had some water damage," she described of the state of the shop then.

Hoffman was so devastated by the loss; she didn't know what to do at first.

"We definitely had to make some adjustments without the walk-in traffic and things that we used to rely on."

Like she did when she was younger, she leaned on the dolls for support once again and worked harder to reach buyers online, putting on shows and creating videos for collectors.

"Dolls speak a universal language and that language is love," she remarked.

That love is to be shared, that's why she's putting on a virtual display event called the Virtual Doll Convention Christmas Pageant. From Dec. 4 through Dec. 6, they will collect money for Children's Hospital of Colorado, Meals on Wheels, and Safe House Denver.

They've already raised $23,000.

"We were not able to have a memorial and this is my way of having that memorial and saying to the world how much I love her," Hoffman said of her mother.

Just as dolls have been helping to support the family for 50 years in business, they continue to be a source of comfort and joy.