Residents at Windsor retirement home pack purses with essentials for women's shelter

Residents at a Windsor retirement home are packing purses filled with toiletries and other essentials to help women at a local shelter. 

Lifetimes on Riverside partnered with Hiatus House, which helps shelter women and children who have experienced violence, to deliver about 100 filled purses. To the retirement home's surprise, more than 300 purses were donated by staff and the community. 

"There's been so much negativity recently out in the world, there's just a lot going on, to see the donations come in and the positive feedback from community members ... has been unbelievable," said the home's executive director Jaclyn Elford. 

Supplies such as shampoo, deodorant, iPhone chargers and nail polish were also collected to be dropped inside the purses. 

"I think it's very important to help them out as much as possible," said resident Ruby Lebel, who was helping to pack the purses on Friday. 

WATCH: Residents show support for women in need

Residents at Lifetimes on Riverside are packing purses full of essentials

3 years ago

Duration 1:07

According to Lifetimes, many residents were previously active in the community, so this is a way to get them engaged again.

Elford said she thought this was a good way to engage residents with their community.

"We have a lot of residents that previously were very active in the community. Over the last couple of years, they haven't been able to get out and help others like they used to," she said.