CLEVELAND — More than 70,000 tubes of lipstick have been shipped to 200 domestic violence shelters across all 50 states, including three here in Ohio.
“I think it is making a positive impact,” said Kimberly Stanley, executive director of Alliance Area Domestic Shelter.
A few times a year, a pretty package arrives at the shelter and is distributed to the women who need help.
“They are super-excited just that somebody else had thought of them, and to be able to put on some lipstick and feel a little bit of normalcy," Stanley said.
The lipstick comes from the nonprofit Find Your Fabulosity.
Sheyrl Kurland started it five years ago. She was volunteering at a local domestic violence shelter.
“I just kept looking at these women, and I kept thinking, how can I make these women fell like women again?” said Kurland.
That’s when she remembered something her mother said.
“Sheryl, if you want to feel better, put on a little lipstick,” Kurland said.
She decided to buy 25 tubes of lipstick and gave them away. “It’s like I took a magic wand to the room and all the pain lifted,” said Kurland.
That was the catalyst for the nonprofit, Kurland said.
Laura Cowman is domestic violence survivor turned advocate. She understands the control of the abuser.
“He makes you wear certain things, eat certain things, go certain places. You don’t have control over your life, so now to put earrings on and make-up on, that makes a woman feel wonderful,” said Cowan.
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