Today’s post is near and dear to my heart. For the last six or seven years, I have served on the Advisory Board for The Salvation Army Louisville Command. There are a lot of perceptions and misconceptions about The Salvation Army, and I won’t get into those here, but the one thing you cannot deny is the amount of good they do for some of our most underserved groups. Nationally, we’re all familiar with the Red Kettle Campaign (which I love and could talk about its benefits for days) and here in Louisville, the Angel Tree program is, by far, the command’s most successful endeavor.

One program locally that is not as widely known is the Transitional Housing Unit for homeless single parent families, many of whom are single mothers. This program provides a safe home for families to get back on their feet and requires the parent to be involved in at least 30 hours of work, school or a combination of both. In addition, residents pay a small percentage of their income toward program fees which encourages self-sufficiency. The program is an amazing resource that allows these families a warm apartment to call their own with a support team to help them reach their goals. And while they receive a lot of assistance, there is not much beyond the bare necessities. That’s where I wanted to help.

Earlier this year, I realized that the amount of health and beauty samples I received was far more than any one person could ever want, or even try. I consider myself a beauty junkie and while I absolutely love being afforded the chance to try out these items, I certainly didn’t need 14 foundations of varying colors. My friend Cara started an initiative in Chicago providing baskets of toiletries and beauty products to women and has been doing so for years, so her endeavor inspired me to do something similar here. Basically, I copied you Cara. Thanks for being so awesome.

I began saving the products I didn’t use with the hopes of sharing these with the women of the Transitional Housing program at the holidays. A couple months ago, though, I decided to get a little ambitious and try and do more than just a simple donation. So I reached out to friends, family and fellow bloggers to request donations. Anything from make-up and skin care products to more practical items like razor blades, toothpaste and body wash.  Within just a few weeks, I was able to amass a pretty big stock of goods. And not just throw-away type stuff, good stuff. Sloan Winters, a local make-up artist at Circe, donated a bag of seriously nice make-up worth more than $2,000. Shannon Kessler, the owner of Primp, did a drive offering customers a discounted blow-out with a product donation. And lots of friends stepped up to give items. I was especially impressed with the support I received from fellow bloggers who sent in boxes jam-packed with amazing products that were just gathering dust at their houses.

I was especially impressed with the support I received from fellow bloggers who sent in boxes jam-packed with amazing products that were just gathering dust at their houses. No joke, just five bloggers provided almost 75% of the products.

The goal was to create an event where these ladies could shop the items. Like coming home with a crazy Sephora haul without having to check out. Or something similar to the Birch Box Pop-Up Events. Rather than just give a box of items, give them a chance to browse the different categories and find the lipsticks, skin care and other assorted products that would work for them. It was a little last minute and a lot rag-tag (basically my modus operandi) but on Monday night 20 ladies from the program were able to “shop” all kinds of beauty goodies.

It may not look like a ton but each woman left with a shopping bag filled to the brim with an array of products that will hopefully last them for a few months. One mom remarked that she hadn’t use a new razor in months, and she was pumped to walk out with a new stock. Something so many of us take for granted can be a luxury when you’re just trying to make ends meet.

The event was scheduled to last a couple hours but our tables were cleared out in about 30 minutes flat. It was really fun to give these ladies a break for their normal routine, even if it was only for a little bit and I’m hoping they all went back to the apartments and dug through all their new stuff. Maybe even put on a mask after their kid(s) went to bed.

I’m hoping to plan another event for Valentine’s Day and possibly open it up to more women’s charities – so if you’re interested in donating products or getting involved, drop me a note – danielle@louwhatwear.com

A huge thank you to Shannon Kessler, Sloan Winters, Happy Plugs, Meaghan of District Sparkle, Anna of The Styled Fox, Lindsay of Champagne and Blue Jeans, Tiffany of Tiffany Style Blog, Hilary of Style in a Small Town and Nina of The HSS Feed for all the donations. Plus to my amazing friends and family that donated and helped out, especially my mother-in-law Susan, you all are the best.

p.s. – To protect the women’s privacy, I am not sharing any pictures featuring them or their faces. At the next event, I’ll do my best to get permission to share some of their pictures and stories!