Stitchin’ Post Gifts collects 153 handbags for local women

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, August 2, 2016

By Amanda Raymond
amanda.raymond@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Stitchin’ Post Gifts was able to collect more than 150 handbags for the community for a campaign to help local women, along with accessory manufacturer Brighton.

Brighton hosted its annual “Give & Get” Handbag Trade-In campaign last month, during which they offered money towards a new Brighton handbag when customers donated their gently used handbags.

Stitchin’ Post Gifts, at 104 S. Main St., participated in the program with a goal of collecting 50 handbags for the Nazareth Outlet and Thrift Store. The store is part of the Nazareth Child and Family Connection in Rockwell.

Stitchin’ Post was able to collect 153 handbags.

“We were overwhelmed at the response,” Pam Coffield, owner of Stitchin’ Post, said.

She said the community was able to donate 50 handbags in “no time at all,” and more kept coming in every day.

“We were having a hard time storing them all,” Coffield said.

Coffield said the collection was able to bring awareness to a program at the Nazareth Outlet and Thrift Store, at 1800 E. Innes St., that helps adults get professional outfits for job interviews and the workplace.

Stitchin’ Post has also contributed to other organizations in the past, such as the Family Crisis Council, the Humane Society and Rowan Helping Ministries.

“We are all about our community and look for ways to benefit the nonprofit organizations in our town,” Coffield said.

In the six or seven years Stitchin’ Post has been participating in the handbag collection, Coffield said it has never received such a large response.

“The community’s been very good to us and it’s nice to be able to give back to my hometown this way,” she said.

Gloria Black, manager of the Nazareth Outlet and Thrift Store, said she was thankful to Coffield for honoring the organization with the donation.

“It was such an outpouring of generosity for a great cause,” she said.

Black said the organization will pay the act forward by continuing to help support the community.

“The Nazareth Outlet and Thrift Store will always do the best we can to be active in the community for other organizations and people in need,” she said.

Contact reporter Amanda Raymond at 704-797-4222.