For the fifth straight year, a Kamloops woman is reaching out to the community to help fill new or gently used purses with essential items for the local women’s shelter.

Patti Phillips says year after year, Kamloopsians have come out in droves to help fill purses for women in need.

“They fill them with women’s essentials like socks, lip-gloss, deodorant, mitts, pads, brushes, toothpaste, gift card, earrings, anything you can think of to put in there,” she said. “Some people will put a little gift in; for example, they wrap a little box of earrings or whatever it might be just because it is at Christmas time and they do give it to them in the women’s shelter on Christmas Day.”

Last year, she says the community helped to fill nearly 700 purses for the women’s shelter.

“Women are like that. When they hear that another woman needs help, they say, ‘what can I do?'” she said. “So because I have been doing it year after year, people are getting in the habit of automatically getting them done.”

Phillips says the hope is to collect even more purses filled with toiletries and other items this year, as the need is continually growing.

“You would think this will last for months, but it doesn’t; by the end of February- beginning of March, they are gone,” she said.

“Especially now with COVID, there has been so much more abuse in the homes, and a lot of women are on the run. When they get to the women’s shelter, oftentimes they are with children, with only a shirt on their back.”

From now until December 14, people can drop off purses filled with essential items at one of four locations in Kamloops including Heathers Fabric Shelf, Senor Froggy’s North Shore, Castanet Kamloops or the NSBIA office at 115 Tranquille Rd.