A MILLICENT Community Learning Centre student is on a mission to provide women battling hardship something special to treasure – a handbag full of essential items.
Tara McNicol reached out to the local community earlier this month asking for donations to fill a total of 60 handbags with “useful goodies” including toiletries, sanitary items, food and coffee vouchers, cosmetics and other gifts.
The 19-year-old plans to donate the bags locally to services supporting domestic violence victims, people experiencing homelessness and residents in financial difficulty.
Ms McNicol said she was overwhelmed by the response the project has received and while she had reached her quota in donated handbags, she was still in need of items to put in them.
“I really want to thank everyone who has made donations to the cause so far,” Tara said.
“The community support has been awesome and I am extremely grateful.
“I’m just really looking for items to put in the bags now so I can start filling the bags.
“Some people have been awesome and have donated bags full of items.
“I will go through what I have and make sure every bag has the essentials, for example one was donated with two toothbrushes, so I took one out and put it in another bag.”
South East Property Sales and Management (SEPSM) recently donated $200 worth of products through its community funnel, an initiative which donates 100pc of funds raised back into the local community.
“After seeing the article in the Millicent High School newsletter we decided to donate $200 worth of products for Tara’s bags,” SEPSM staff member Kelly Brown said.
“We saw it as an opportunity to help out Tara with her project and be able to reach out to those that may be in need in our community.”
Glen Street Pharmacy also donated a cardboard box full of face wipes and Tara is still waiting to hear back from a number of other local businesses which have expressed interest.
The handbags will be made as part of Tara’s Duke of Edinburgh bronze medallion plan as a service to community.
The next part of her project is to make 60 toiletry bags for men who are in need.
“I thought I should do an equal amount of toiletry bags to handbags,” she said.
“It’s only fair because men go through things as well, it’s not like women are the only ones who suffer in life.”
Although she is still finishing the handbags, Tara has already started to look for toiletry bags and items to donate to men in need.
There will be a basket set up at the high school presentation night for people to donate goods, otherwise they can be dropped at the learning centre’s Mount Burr Road campus.
Tara plans to donate the handbags to the different charities in the community by December 15.
For more information contact the learning centre through the Millicent High School by phoning 8733 2400.
