Every purse is packed with the gift of dignity and hope.
And thousands of purses are being donated from one end of the country to the other to women and youth in need.
Since launching the fourth annual Fill a Purse for a Sister campaign Sept. 1 with a goal of collecting 10,000 purses and backpacks by Dec. 1, Angel Freedman began receiving daily messages from women across the province and beyond wanting to join the inspiring initiative.
The campaign collects gently used and new purses filled with essentials — which can be a long list, if you ask a woman with a purse — and distributes them to local shelters for women and youth, and crisis centres.
The campaign has blossomed well beyond its roots in York Region, not only throughout Ontario — including Toronto, Bradford, Orangeville, Alliston, Barrie, Bracebridge, Orillia, Huntsville, Gravenhurst, Wasaga Beach, Collingwood, Beaverton, Uxbridge, Whitby, Burlington, Oshawa, Ajax, Pickering, Thornton, Ottawa, Montreal and Sudbury — but also from Halifax to Vancouver, Winnipeg and St. Albert, Alta., and across the globe to Lagos, Nigeria and Glasgow, Scotland.
“The response has been overwhelming, and I’m so grateful,” said Freedman, a Stouffville-based social worker. “What’s important to me is that we haven’t lost sight of the fact that this is about keeping a woman’s dignity intact.”
The campaign struck a chord instantly, with local women initially donating 1,500 purses, which doubled the next year, and last year saw 6,000 purses and backpacks going to nine shelters in York Region and Toronto.
Backpacks were added to the campaign last year, following requests by local youth shelters, including the Sutton Youth Shelter and 360kids in York Region.
Last year, Newmarket resident Suzan Challis decided to bring the campaign to Beaverton, where she spends most weekends.
“I knew there was a real need there, and I also knew there were many wonderful, caring and extremely generous people in the community who would take part in the campaign.”
Holding a Fill a Purse for a Sister event “that brings everyone together” has helped ensure the campaign’s success, she added, as well as Beaverton resident Teresa Foster, a Southlake Regional Health Centre nurse who collects more than 50 purses from her colleagues there.
This year, 165 purses were delivered to a shelter, youth centre and food bank in Brock Township, Challis said.
Freedman has no doubt the goal of 10,000 purses for this year’s campaign is attainable.
“Last year, I stored all the purses at my home and personally delivered most of the 6,000 purses — that’s a lot of purses,” she said, with a laugh. “Fill a Purse has grown beyond me now.”
The campaign has leapfrogged organically, through social media and word of mouth, and Freedman now relies on “campaign leads” to spearhead each community’s drive, though she continues to act as a liaison with the shelters and crisis centres.
Yet literally everywhere she goes, she is picking up donations — the cargo area of her SUV is always overflowing with purses and backpacks.
Businesses have joined the campaign, too, including Kintetsu World Express (Canada) Inc., a shipping company with locations in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal that offered to deliver purses, as well as have its employees donate purses.
Proctor and Gamble donated 300 packages full of essentials — shampoo, conditioner, a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and anti-perspirant.
Altima Dental donated 1,000 toothbrushes, floss and toothpaste.
More volunteers are needed to help pick up and deliver the purses. York Regional Police Staff Sgt. Sarah Jane Riddell and the Women in Leadership Internal Support Network have offered their services this year in York Region, Freedman added (with relief).
Important, too, to the growth of the campaign has been the local businesses that are drop-off locations for the three months of the campaign.
Still in Style Resale Boutique on Main Street in Newmarket has been a drop-off since the campaign launched.
“It’s just our way of helping,” co-owner Cathy Humpage said, “and there are so many people in need.”
This year, hundreds of purses have been dropped off and are being stored in the store’s basement until they’re ready to be picked up for delivery.
Both her and co-owner Kim Ostryhon are inspired by the interactions they have with many of the donors because of how meaningful the initiative is to them.
“You could feel the emotion,” Humpage said, recalling one women who donated several new designer purses. “It meant as much to her to give as to us to receive them.”
The campaign’s success is due to that personal connection donors feel in choosing a purse and filling it with a woman or youth in mind, Freedman said, adding some women include a personal note.
“Every woman can relate to this, our purses are a part of us, an extension of us,” Freedman said. “It’s sad not to have one, these women have lost something, or have nothing of their own.”
It’s giving that goes beyond writing a cheque to support a charity, she said.
“They love to fill a purse with things they may have, or that they buy, and they add jewelry and a note and gloves and a hat, they’re choosing items with a woman in mind. They feel that a little bit of them goes to ‘a sister’ — it’s a personal connection.”
Freedman has embraced Susan B. Anthony, the renowned American suffragette and women’s rights activist in the early 19th century, as a standard bearer for the Fill a Purse for a Sister campaign for her well-known quote: “Every woman should have a purse of her own.”
For Anthony, who campaigned for reforms in a time when everything a married woman had was considered the property of her husband, a purse was a symbol of a woman’s independence.
There’s still time to fill a purse for sister, with the campaign wrapping up Dec. 1.
Fill your new or gently used purses or backpacks with toiletries, sanitary products and other items, from tissues and tampons, to lip balm and gum. Add your own special touch, such as a scarf, hair clips, gift card or notebook. Anything is welcome, other than food.
In Newmarket, you can drop off your purse and backpack donations at Still in Style Resale Boutique on Main Street.
For more information, visit 'fillapurseforasister' on Facebook or Instagram or email [email protected].
