A Moncton woman who spent years living in poverty has launched a charity called “Princess and the Purse” in hopes of helping women in need.
Lorraine Cormier is giving gently used purses to single mothers and women in the community who don’t have the means to treat themselves.
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“I used to take samples out of the magazines at the doctor’s office of the perfume and the makeup and that was my treat, that’s all that I could afford,” Cormier said.
In her 30s, Cormier says she was a single mother of two, working four jobs and yet she still struggled to pay her monthly bills.
“I cried a lot in the shower. You know, you go and you make sure everything is all right with the kids and they are happy and they have no idea what is going on, and then you go in the bathroom and you sit there and are like, ‘how am I going to make ends meet?'”
Once Cormier reached her 40s, she says she went back to school and started up a successful aesthetics spa, which she now runs in Dieppe.
She says she’s one of the lucky ones who managed to crawl out of poverty and now wants to help other women with limited means feel like princesses, if only for a moment.
Last fall, she launched Princess and the Purse and is taking in donations of second hand purses and little gifts to tuck inside.
“We ask people to put in the purses things that we take for granted that are in the bottom of our purse — a package of gum, deodorant, hand sanitizer,” Cormier said.
“Even though it doesn’t seem like a lot, that little bottle of shampoo for someone that is using a bar of soap on their hair, that little bottle of shampoo and conditioner is going to mean the world to them.”
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This year, Cormier expects to hand out at least 1,000 purses in Greater Moncton with the help of Moncton Headstart, the YWCA, Crossroads for Women and Harvest House.
She has also expanded Princess and the Purse to reach women in every province in Atlantic Canada, British Columbia as well as Ireland and Idaho.
She says thousands of purses will be handed out before Christmas and her goal for next year is to see Princess and the Purse launched in every province in Canada.
“I won’t forget where I’ve come from, and because of that I know the value of what I am doing,” Cormier said.
A Princess and the Purse fundraising gala will take place Thursday, Nov. 10 in Moncton.