Donation of purses

I want to tell you about a creative way a group of women donated to Shepherds of Good Hope recently.

Three of the women -- Monica Wright, her daughter Tracey Wright and Tanya O'Connor -- were part of a group that collected women's purses to give to the women who stay at our shelter or in one of our supportive living facilities. But they donated a lot more than just purses. Those purses were filled with donated items that women can use every day. Here's a CTV story on the project.

It's a very clever way of making a donation. We know the women in our care will love getting these purses that we plan to hand out later this month at Christmas. Thank you so much to the group for taking on this project. I'm sure it was fun.

It's a great example, though, of how fundraising can be fun. If you're doing a group fundraising project, set a goal. Hopefully you'll exceed that goal but goals can make a project manageable. For example, the women who collected the purses had the goal of filling the purses with certain items. A school will set a goal of making a certain number of sandwiches in one day. You might hold a canned food drive at your company and ask each person to bring in one can each day for a week. The goal is so easy for everyone to meet. Just one can per day for five days. And yet at the end of the week, everyone will be shocked at how much that adds up to. We'll even pick it up for you.

If you would like some ideas on what to donate, please visit our donation page or contact me at asilverman@shepherdsofgoodhope.com.

From left to right: Anna Silverman, Shepherds of Good Hope Foundation Executive Director, Monica Wright, Tracey Wright, Micah Garten, Development Officer, and Tanya O'Connor