Jazmine Walter knows the difference a toy can make to a sick child.
As a high school junior, she endured a lengthy stay at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, to treat a digestive problem that left her with five ulcers and two holes in her stomach. A small stuffed dog named Hope — given to her by hospital staff — was her companion as she underwent uncomfortable procedures, or when she was bored or lonely.
Now 24, Walter still feels “a special attachment” to Hope, which she has passed down to her daughter.
“She loves that dog,” Walter said. “That’s kind of the one piece of that journey I have still.”
The money that funded Walter’s stuffed dog may have come from an unexpected source: Portland strippers who perform at an annual fundraiser called Tatas for Toys, raising $243,000 to buy items for patients at the children’s hospital over the last 15 years.
This year, Walter gave back: She was one of 30 dancers showered with dollar bills at the Dec. 16 event, which raised $60,000 for Doernbecher — a record.
With the money, the dancers buy art supplies, stuffed animals, sports equipment, princess costumes, puzzles and other toys that the hospital uses to comfort young patients.
The toys serve as distractions for patients and sometimes their siblings. But medical staff also use them to soften scary situations: Ross said one doctor recounted to him how they used a stuffed animal to show a child what it would be like when they gave them an IV.
The need for toys there is constant: Doernbecher has about 140,000 patient visits a year.
“Tatas for Toys has been one of the largest donors of toys during the holiday season for many years,” Nicole Rideout, a spokeswoman for Doernbecher, said in a statement. “We rely on the generosity of our community.”
Walter, who dances under the name Bunni, remembers while delivering the toys her first year that she overheard a boy trekking through the lobby at Doernbecher with an IV pole telling his dad he wanted the stuffed hot dog that Walter was holding.
“The way his face lit up, and Dad looked like he was about to cry,” said Walter.
Tatas for Toys began in 2011, when someone suggested to comedian Aaron Ross that he hold a toy drive during his weekly comedy set at a Portland rock club. But he wanted a hook, so he decided to include strippers to help raise the money. Ross and the other participants delivered $500 worth of purchased and donated toys, including puzzles and a basketball, to Doernbecher in a little red wagon.
“It had this Santa Claus lore,” he said.
Over the years, the number of Tatas for Toys dancers and donations grew, and the event added musical acts, skits and a broader array of performers — including aerial acrobats, fire-eaters and contortionists.
“It’s really like a sexy circus, a variety show,” Ross said.
The group now uses its donations to buy toys from a local store, Mudpuddles Toys and Books, at a 20 percent discount.
The importance of Tatas for Toys drive became clear in 2020, during the first year of the covid pandemic. After a Zoom-only show of 15 strippers raised $15,000, teary-eyed hospital staff shared their fear that they wouldn’t have enough toys to gift through the holidays. The hospital’s tractor-trailer, usually filled with presents, was empty when Ross came to drop off the group’s toys that year. He said the staff told him that no one had donated toys from mid-March to mid-June.
“All the following years since that, we’ve been so much more on a mission,” Ross said.
The charity draws on Portland’s rich strip and burlesque culture. Nicknamed the “strip club capital of America,” Portland had nearly nine strip clubs for every 100,000 people in 2015, according to the data analysis firm Priceonomics. The city’s strip scene was the topic of a 2024 documentary.
In past years, the event was held a club called Dante’s Live, which is famous for being the site of the “Keep Portland Weird” mural. This year, the dancers performed before a sold-out crowd at the 400-seat Alberta Rose Theatre.
Passion, a 23-year-old dancer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity over concerns that dancing could interfere with her future career plans, said she participated because Doernbecher helped save her life.
She lost her right kidney after an ATV crash at 13 in which she also broke every bone in her face except for her jaw. Her family moved to Oregon a few months later so Passion could be treated at Doernbecher. She remained a patient there until she aged out at 18 years old.
She remembers receiving a coloring book from the hospital, which she said made her feel less isolated.
“It helps take your mind off of any medical procedures that are happening to you. You can color your life away or snuggle your stuffy instead of focusing on the needle going into your arm,” she said.
Passion has seen the healing value of toys now as a mother, too. When her 2-year-old daughter was admitted to Doernbecher after being scratched by a dog on Christmas, the girl only let doctors do their work after being promised a toy.
She instantly fell in love with the detachable shoes of a Disney Princess Jasmine doll — one that Passion remembers the dancers buying at Mudpuddles.
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