Purses! Purses! Purses!

Purses galore, is what Gayla Cox of Ridgway, and her daughter Stephanie got when they decided to start a drive to get purses for the Anna Bixby Center in Harrisburg.  Anna Bixby serves 7 counties and helps about 2000 women per year. Gayla's daughter had been involved in a similar project in the Quad Cities area with her church.  She has since moved back to Southern Illinois, so they decided to try it here. So with the wonderful world of internet and now Facebook.  The journey began.   They started asking for people to donate old purses and to put things inside them, like shampoo, hand creme, chapstick, etc.   The purses would then be given to the Anna Bixby center for the abused women. Women who come to the center sometimes walk in with just the clothes on their backs to excape the abuse that they are experiencing. They were hoping for at least 50....104 purses later the project was done, with people from as far away as Mt. Vernon and Fairfield from churches and individuals the response was overwhelming.  Gayla is shown in the picture (3rd from left) along with workers from Anna Bixby accepting the purses.  The truck in the background is completely full.   What a great gift to the women of our world that have been abused or having difficult times.   Gayla has another project in the makes for the children that will be kicked off at the end of summer. The center appreciates any donations. They relied on Government assistance, but cutbacks have also affected the very important center.