With this year's annual Fill a Purse for a Sister Campaign nearing its end, volunteer "angels" with York Regional Police are once again readying to collect and deliver thousands of donated purses and backpacks.
The three-month campaign ends on Dec. 1, after which members of the York Regional Police will help distribute the purses to local women's shelters, rape crisis centres, and women's social services organizations.
Like so much else this year, the campaign has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. And while changes had to be made as to how the purses are handled and donated, the assistance from the local police force remains a constant.
"The York Regional Police are my angels. I used to deliver the purses myself, but they have been doing it for a couple of years now," said Angel Freedman, a social worker who founded the Fill a Purse for a Sister Campaign in York Region five years ago.
"They pick up the wares, and they take them to the shelters. All I have to do is tell them which ones the purses are going to because they already know where they all are. That's information I can't disclose to just anybody."
The volunteers are uniformed and civilian members of the York Regional Police Women in Leadership Internal Support Network, which supports and celebrates women in the police department and across the region.
According to the support network's uniformed co-chair, Staff-Sgt. Sarah Riddell, this will be the third year the support network will be helping out with the campaign.
"I work with Angel to identify locations where her (community campaign volunteers) have a large number of purses, and then uniformed and civilian members of the support network donate their own time to go out and pick them up," she explained.
"We then bring them back to headquarters and deliver them to agencies across the region that serve women and children, some even that serve men. We are the elves; we pick up and deliver."
The police department retains some of the purses for its special victims unit, so officers can provide them to human trafficking victims.
When volunteers deliver to unlisted shelters, said Riddell, they go in unmarked cars and always call ahead.
What started as a small initiative in Freedman's living room in 2015 has grown into a nation-wide charity that collected about 10,000 purses last year.
In the few years that the police support network has been helping out, said Riddell, the campaign has grown by leaps and bounds to the point where it's almost overwhelming.
"It just keeps growing every year. It seemed like were mountains of purses last year. It was crazy," she exclaimed.
"We are involved in several initiatives, but this one is huge."
To keep the campaign going during the pandemic, changes had to be made to how the purses are donated. Once brought to a drop-off location, the purses are sealed in plastic bags, so no one handles them directly.
The police volunteers will go out and collect the purses in the first week of December and are still thinking about how they will approach the task in the age of COVID-19.
"This year, we will have to do things a little bit differently," said Riddell.
"We'll have to ensure that we are wearing gloves and keeping our hands clean. I'm coordinating with our special events office, which runs Holiday Heroes, and will see what they are doing when they go out and pick up gifts, and we will follow those protocols as well."
Any extra steps will be worth the trouble because the gift of a purse is more than just a new handbag and some personal care products, it's about helping women, children and men who have fled abuse or been trafficked to maintain their dignity, Riddell said.
How to get involved in the 6th annual Fill a Purse for a Sister Campaign:
There's still time to join the campaign, which runs until Tuesday, Dec. 1.
Simply fill a new or gently used purse or backpack with toiletries, sanitary products and other personal items. Add a special touch, such as a scarf, gloves, notebook or gift card. All items must be in unopened packages.
Encourage your family, friends, neighbours, colleagues or classmates to donate, too.
In Newmarket, purses and backpacks can be dropped off at Still in Style Resale Boutique, 203 Main St.; in Aurora at Great Clips, 91 First Commerce Dr., Unit 7 (Highway 404 and Wellington Street East); and in Stouffville at Great Clips, 1076 Hoover Park Dr.
