It was four years ago when Kerry Towle was in Edmonton and became inspired from offerings that gave profound hope.
She attended an event called Baskets of Hope for WIN House in Edmonton, a safe house in the capital city for women fleeing domestic violence. The Baskets of Hope event was created in the spirit of Christmas and Diwali, the annual Hindu festival of lights, and brought together women from all facets of life to help make the holidays special for women in need.
“Literally I saw someone else doing something great and thought we could take that and do something right in Central Alberta, and CAWES helps in all our surrounding communities,” said Towle, noting that help for women includes those in the communities of Innisfail, Bowden and Penhold. “You could literally watch people come in and have 25 dollar store nail polish and still feel like they are making this massive contribution to help a woman in need.”
And four years later, after creating her own Baskets of Hope initiative for the Central Alberta Women's Emergency Shelter (CAWES), it has become a holiday tradition in the region – 25 baskets of hope for women in need.
That tradition for this year's holiday season was carried out in force on Sunday, Dec. 4 at Sylvan Lake's Bukwildz restaurant, the sponsors of this year's Baskets of Hope.
“We had the whole restaurant for Christmas fellowship and we also took a moment to be thankful and build the baskets,” said Towle, noting the restaurant closed its doors from 2 to 5 p.m. for volunteers to assemble their offerings for CAWES.
This week the bundles will be turned over to CAWES. However, there was a twist. Charlene Preston, the chair of the board at the Innisfail-based Big Brothers Big Sisters of Prairies to Peaks, donated 25 purses. So rather than going with the traditional baskets to provide hope, Towle and her team of volunteers went with purses, each stuffed with 25 items, including jewelry, socks, nail polish, gloves, books and candles.
“For us it was more important at Christmastime (when) everybody thinks about the kids, and that is exactly where your thoughts should be, and that includes the mom who is fleeing violence, and she does not have time to hold up things for themselves,” said Towle, the former MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake who is now working in the private communications field. “So this is specifically for that person who is fleeing violence, and who may be getting a lot of support for their child but not necessarily for themselves.”
Kerry Towle
"This is specifically for that person who is fleeing violence, and who may be getting a lot of support for their child but not necessarily for themselves."
