Raggedy Ann Friends

Let us start a garden, you and I.
Let us turn the soil of acquaintanceship
And in this fertile ground plant kindly thoughts;
Let us pull all weeds of envy and selfishness
And destroy them!
Let us water our garden with the dew of sympathy.
Let us keep our growing plants in the sunshine of love
And happiness is ours; our garden is filled
With the beautiful flowers of friendship.

Welcome to the Raggedy Ann Friends web site.

Come on in to the gathering of Raggedy Ann Friends.

Friends we've gathered from 20 years of annual meetings at the Arcola, IL Raggedy-Ann Festival. This festival was started because Arcola is the birthplace of Johnny Gruelle, creator of the Great American Doll Raggedy Ann.

With her flashing shoe-button eyes and her eternal smile she sends messages to Raggedy Ann collectors everywhere and has inspired us to create the first ever Raggedy Friendship Gathering. The "Festival" started in Arcola as a local family affair. It soon became the rallying point for folks, like us, who wanted to find each other to buy, sell, and trade dolls and stories.

The excitement of meeting fellow collectors, finding new items, and learning so much about Johnny Gruelle's doll and storybooks attracted several thousand of us each year. The growing awareness of a common interest led the Raggedy friends to use the festival as a focal point to meet and greet one another. In some ways it was the person-to-person extension of our quarterly magazine Rags.

As time passed, the Raggedy Friends began to gather in a variety of locations across the nation. Some of these gatherings, which are documented in Rags, include: Ohio, New York, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, California, and Seattle, Washington.

Now while we are currently planning the Raggedy Friendship Gathering in Arcola, this site will be available to share the news about the gatherings all over the nation. To facilitate this process, we are asking that organizers send their information to RaggedyFriends@sbc.global.net.

Again quoting from Raggedy Ann Wishing Pebble: Just as when Raggedy Andy and Raggedy Ann decided to have another adventure, they tiptoed quietly to the window, climbed to the sill and catching hands jumped to the ground below, "'Blump! Blump!' And so this adventure began."

Please check our gatherings page for special information.