Akron Beacon Journal, OH
Nov 25 2006

Parents give in daughter’s memory
They work with their church to provide coats for Armenians

By Colette M. Jenkins
Beacon Journal religion writer

Carl and Patsy Dulin planted seeds of caring in their daughter and
they blossomed.

Now, they are following her example of caring for people halfway
around the world, in Armenia.

“She loved working to help people in that small part of the world,”
Carl Dulin said. “She was the most giving person I ever knew and we
want to honor her memory by doing things in her name.”

The Dulins’ daughter, Carrie Jane, died in a car crash on her 28th
birthday, Aug. 5, 2003, en route to a new assignment in Nigeria. She
had spent five years as a Peace Corps and World Vision worker in
Armenia.

A year after her death, the Dulins took a trip to Armenia to deliver
money donated in their daughter’s name to two orphanages in Sissian
and Spitak. They purchased appliances for the kitchen in Spitak and
an organ for the orphanage in Sissian.

They also took part of Carrie’s ashes and spread them at a deserted
monastery near Sissian.

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As they left the orphanages, they asked the directors what they could
do to make a difference in the lives of the children there. They were
told that the children at both orphanages needed warm clothing for
the winter, when they are forced to bundle up in bed and stay home
from school because the buildings aren’t heated.

Last year, the Dulins’ church, Doylestown United Methodist, organized
a coat campaign and collected about 30 boxes of coats that were
shipped to Armenia through the United Methodist Committee on Relief,
just after Hurricane Katrina. But the orphanages never received the
coats because they were lost in transit through the depot in New
Orleans.

“The other side of that is somebody got those coats who needed
them,” Carl Dulin said. “Now, we’re doing it again but a little
differently.”

Church collecting money

This time, the church is collecting money to send with the Dulins
when they leave for Armenia on Dec. 4. The plan is to buy the coats
in Armenia.

“It’s easy to see why Carrie loved the Armenian people because they
are such gentle, kind-hearted people,” Patsy Dulin said. “If it had
not been for Carrie, we would never have gotten to know the people
there.”

The Dulins made their first trip to Armenia two years before Carrie
was killed. Carrie introduced her parents to the people she had come
to know and love and showed them her work.

When they returned in 2004, they ate apples from the orchard Carrie
helped the Armenian people plant in front of one of the orphanages.

“Carrie did a lot of neat things for the people there because she
loved them. She was a fierce fighter for the underdog and people who
are oppressed,” Carl Dulin said. “It was her seed planting that has
us doing what we’re doing now.

“What we’re doing is what God commands of us — helping those in
need. But at the same time it’s our way of dealing with our grief.”

Donations to the Coats for Armenia Fund can be sent to Doylestown
United Methodist Church, 153 Church St., Doylestown 44230.