By Elizabeth Wulfhorst
RUMSON – Ellie Frankel’s passion for helping those experiencing homelessness grew into a plan that, with the help of classmates and faculty at Rumson-Fair Haven High School, came to fruition this month.
Brewing since middle school, the idea was to help those in the homeless community she said are often overlooked and underserved: women.
Ellie noted that support for the homeless often comes in the form of basic necessities – shelter, food, clothing – what she called “baseline” items.
“Women just have a whole other set of things they need,” she said. “And even more than need, they have stuff they want. They want makeup and hair brushes and hair curlers and deodorant and feminine hygiene products that people just don’t really think to give them.”
Enter Helping Handbags. A few years ago Ellie, now a sophomore, helped her mother clean out her closet; she saw the unused bags as an opportunity.
“I was like, we can’t just give these bags empty. We should fill them with stuff,” Ellie said. So she filled them with items before they donated them to a shelter. “And then the idea kind of came to me to make it more large scale.”
But it took the urging of her high school guidance counselor, Alyssa Trocchia, to bring that plan to life. She suggested Ellie talk to the Character Education Club and the Key Club, two student organizations that “do a lot of volunteer hours,” Trocchia said. Ellie is also a member of the school’s Global Women Empowerment Club, so she was able to coordinate help from them as well.
The students requested bags and female toiletry items like shampoo and conditioner, razors, feminine hygiene products, combs, brushes, curlers, makeup, makeup remover and more from family, friends and the community. They also accepted monetary donations.
When they opened donations to include money instead of just items, “that’s when a lot of people came in,” said Ellie. “We got so many monetary donations.”
“The people who donated, it was mind-blowing. People were just coming up to my front door. It was really amazing to see.”
Ellie used the money to purchase additional items needed to fill the bags. Approximately 40 students helped sort the donations and pack the bags April 19 and 20. The more than 100 filled bags will be stored at the school until arrangements can be made to transport them to the shelters.
The bags will be going to a women’s shelter and a family shelter in Monmouth County, Ellie said.
Ellie said she came up with the idea for Helping Handbags after reading about a woman in Los Angeles who went to homeless encampments to give women salon styling services. “I just was so inspired by that,” she said.
“Girls get so much confidence from the way they present themselves to the world, and I know it’s surface level, but I just think it makes a huge difference.”
Ellie said her goal is to have the program continue on a yearly or bi-yearly basis, even after she graduates. She would like to build relationships with the local shelters and make the program something people look forward to, even changing the items and bags with the seasons. “We can do a late fall, early winter drive where we give hand warmers and gloves… and just keep these women afloat and looking forward to the bags as the years go on,” she said.
She hopes the bags bring the women more than just products they need; she hopes they also bring confidence.
“I think a big problem for homeless people is that they lose their confidence and they lose their sense of self. And when you give that back to these women, giving them things that make them feel pretty and seen and cared for, I think it just gives them a whole other sense of confidence that makes it easier for them to get jobs and go back into the world.”
The article originally appeared in the April 29 – May 5, 2021, print edition of The Two River Times.
