It’s not everyday you spend a Sunday morning filling 100’s of handbags with little goodies such as shampoo, soap, toothbrush & toothpaste, deo, fem pro products, hair products etc.
 
For RC Manukau Sunrise Inc, our “little” project that erupted into something bigger than Ben Hur, was exactly what we had to do. We had over half our members helping with this, as instead of our envisioned 25 bags, we ended up with what we believe to be approx. 500. They ranged in size, so we had small, medium, large & in every colour under the sun.
 
The club used Foundation Grant money to help with extra supplies to fill these & away we went. Was a great project to get the whole club involved in. We also had HUGE support from other clubs in our District, whom we can’t thank enough. So much so, we have enough to do another round of filling for this coming Rotary year as filled 150 handbags in this instance, which were dropped to the South Auckland Family Refuge.
 
To finish off our story is a lovely thank you letter the club received after the bags had been dropped off,
 
“On behalf of South Auckland Family Refuge and the women and children who use our services, we would like to thank you all for the bags and toiletry products that were donated to our Refuge (South Auckland Family Refuge)
 
We are overwhelmed by the generosity of people such as you who respond so magnificently to the needs of women and their children affected by family violence.
 
We would not be able to continue this much needed service without the support from the community.
 
-From Leanne Jaggs, Manukau City Sunrise Rotary