Good Karma: Handbags for Hope

This month for Good Karma we’re spotlighting an event that pairs giving back to those in need with fashion and fun. For the past four years, Canada’s Willow Stream Spa at the Fairmont Empress has hosted a fantastic event to raise funds to for children with Neuroblastoma. Called Handbags for Hope, the event turns the spa into a shopping center for donated handbags and has raised nearly $50,000 to-date. Willow Stream will be hosting the event for the fifth year on February 27th.

At the event guests can participate in both a silent auction for designer handbags (hello, Chanel!) and the general sale of new and gently-used bags, scarves, and jewelry. In addition to shopping for new and gently-used designer handbags, guests who make a purchase will enjoy complimentary mini-treatments and everyone receives a goody bag. The event donates 100 percent of all funds raised to benefit the Team for Hope Fund for Neuroblastoma Research Society, a non-profit society with the Victoria Foundation that works with researchers at the BC Children’s Hospital and the BC Cancer Agency.

On January 24 and 25 anyone in the Victoria area who has new or gently-used handbags, scarves, and jewelry can bring them to the collection drive run by Team for Hope at the Mayfair Mall Centre Court. Tickets go on sale January 27th online. They are $25 plus processing fee and non refundable.