When Hicksville resident Cindy Brzozowski started collecting Barbie dolls in 1982, it wasn’t about the toys—it was about the elaborate, beautifully-detailed costumes.
“I fell in love with fashion,” Brzozowski said. “I wanted to go to design school and I used to look at all of the outfits on the Barbie dolls and I just love them.”
And while that love for fashion soon turned into a full-fledged career as a designer in the lingerie market, that love also quickly spread like a wildfire into a passion for Barbie dolls. The hunt for seasonal ones, completing full collections and finding elusive dolls that were exclusive to different chains such as Hallmark, become a hobby that she had grown to love.
“Soon I realized that it wasn’t just about the costumes—I had to complete the whole collection,” she said. “It just evolved into something huge.”
Brzozowsk has vintage dolls from the Era Collection, Hallmark exclusives, the American Story collection and the Got Milk? Barbie campaign, among others.
With more than 500 dolls in a storage unit, Brzozowski went through a few life transitions. After attempting to sell a few on eBay, she realized that she didn’t want to wait for the dolls to sell and she wasn’t seeing a return on her investment anyway, so she decided that she would begin to donate the dolls, something she found therapeutic and rewarding.
“I’m a giver and I like when I can do something for other people,” she said. “I always felt that paying it forward was something I should do. And I feel like donating these dolls is also part of a healing process for me—it’s cleansing.”
This year, Brzozowski chose to donate more than four crates of dolls to the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Nassau County (ucpn)—a cause close to her heart. She explained that she had such a great time picking out which ones to give to the organization and tried to get as many diverse Barbies together so that there was something for everyone.
“My co-worker Mary Brosky and Cindy are old friends and Cindy mentioned having a few dolls to donate to ucpn,” said Patricia Quinn, community outreach for ucpn. “When she arrived with four crates, we were in shock—pleasantly in shock. My heart literally felt so full. I was truly struck by her kindness and caring and it made me feel so happy and in the holiday spirit.”
Ucpn used some of the dolls to create a Barbie-themed Christmas tree during their recent Festival of Trees event, which took place Thanksgiving weekend at the Cradle of Aviation in Garden City. The remainder of the dolls will be used as raffle prizes at the association’s annual Sugar Plum Ball, which will take place on Dec. 14.
“We expect about 300 dads and daughters to come to that event,” said Quinn. “We hope to raise a lot of funds through the sale of the raffle tickets.”
And Brzozowski is so touched to see them all go to good use. She said she got emotional when donating her Barbies, not for the fact that she worked so hard to build her collection—but because she knows that her dolls have grown to have more meaning than she ever could have thought.
“It’s just so rewarding. I got a little choked up,” she said. “Ucpn is a wonderful organization and I feel like sometimes people forget about them. I just really like to give back.”
“Meeting Cindy was wonderful for me and I realize that the good work we do here at ucpn is noticed and remembered by people we help in the community,” added Quinn. “That means the world to me. We work hard to carry out our mission of providing the best programs and services for the individuals with disabilities that we assist.”
