A teenager from Livonia, Michigan has started her own charity that involves lightly used purses. The Livonia Observer gave Rachel Zuckerman their award for Outstanding Youth for 2013. Her charity is called Helping Handbags, and its goal is to assist women fleeing violent situations.
Rachel got the idea for her charity while watching the 2012 Miss America Contest. She saw that Miss Idaho had done a similar project, and that pushed her to make a difference of her own. Rachel said she has a purse addiction and thought it would be a great idea to start a charity that involved purses like Miss Idaho.
Helping Handbags takes donated, gently used handbags and fills them with donated toiletries and hygiene products. Rachel has collected more than 100 purses from people at church, her dance studio, and school. Many donations came from Rachel’s own extensive purse collection. Every purse has been filled with donated items, too. Each purse contains at least a toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, and conditioner. Depending on what kinds of items she receives by donation, some purses also were packed with lip gloss, blush, notebooks, and sewing kits.
Rachel hopes to complete at least one more purse collection and continue the charity project while she attends the University of Iowa Honors College. Rachel does not limit herself to just purses; she involves herself in other charitable causes, too. She collected canned goods for St. John’s food pantry, as well as returnable cans and bottles that she cashed in to purchase cleaning supplies and toiletries. With the help of her friend Gabrielle, she put up fliers around the neighborhood to help collect more donations. They were able to collect $35 in returnable items and over 50 nonperishable food items.
Rachel has been donating her time to helping others for most of her life. When she was a young girl, her parents would bring her to soup kitchens to volunteer. On her fourth birthday, Rachel donated all of her gifts to Toys for Tots. In sixth grade, she donated her hair to Locks of Love. Rachel is also the vice president of her class, president of SADD, and president of the Global Education Council. She is a model student and is more than deserving of the award she won.
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