WAHM Announce

Colonial Heights, VA (October 16, 2009) Women from across the nation unite to remind abused women and children they are not forgotten.

Each year, domestic abuse forces hundreds of thousands of women and children to leave their homes and seek safety and healing in shelters across the United States. While shelters can fill basic needs and provide counseling services, often the most difficult challenges faced by those who use them are recognizing their own worth and feeling accepted by society.

This year, the Pink Slipper Project is making a difference in the lives of these women and children by warming their hearts and their toes with handcrafted slippers – practical reminders that someone cared enough to make something special just for them. A joint venture of Make Mine Pink, an online shopping and networking site for women, and Quilt n’ Stitch Marketplace, the premier quilting and needlework community on the Web, the Pink Slipper Project is working closely with Enchanted Makeovers, an internationally recognized non-profit organization that transforms shelters for women and children into places of peace and possibilities. Together, their goal is to provide warm and beautifully designed slippers to the residents of each makeover project this winter, along with as many other women and children’s shelters as possible.

Joyce Lucas, founder of Make Mine Pink and Quilt ‘n Stitch Marketplace was inspired to start the Pink Slipper Project while working with Terry Grahl of Enchanted Makeovers. Lucas states, “It was through Terry’s vision to help improve living spaces and children’s lives in shelters that I began to get a much clearer picture of what we could do to make a difference while at the same time filling a very basic need.”

Within hours of making the first slipper pattern available on the Pink Slipper blog in August, women from all over the US had downloaded it and wanted to take part. Some stitched slippers, some knit or crocheted slippers and others donated fabrics and supplies. The one common thread was they all wanted to help make someone’s life a little better.
The project is just slippers away from meeting its first challenge of supplying slippers for a large women’s shelter that houses 80 women and 40 children. Many other challenges have come into the program since its inception, including one for a girls’ shelter in Detroit that houses approximately 138 teenage girls.

Only a few weeks old, the Pink Slipper Project has already gained international attention. Lucas was recently contacted by Renee Glass whose Australian organization, Slippers with Soul, provides slippers to women who are ill or in assisted living facilities. In 15 months, Glass’s program has provided 8,000 pair of slippers, with a goal of a million.
Lucas hopes to see the same success here. She states, “As long as we’re able and as long as we have loving and giving participants, we’ll continue to grow this wonderful program. A project that unites women all over the nation for the good of others has to be a success. There’s no other possible outcome.”

If you are involved with a women’s shelter that would benefit from the Pink Slipper Project, please contact them at info@thepinkslipperproject.org with your shelter’s needs.

If you would like to help warm the hearts and toes of women and children this winter by providing slippers or donating suplies to make slippers,  please visit www.pinkslipperproject.org for details on how you can help or contact Joyce Lucas at info@thepinkslipperproject.org

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