Lavish Leggings made a $10,000 donation to Walpole Island First Nation on Wednesday, September 29, 2021.
Brandie Lucier, who worked with the owners of Lavish Leggings on the fundraiser, told the Sydenham Current the initiative raised money by selling leggings, t-shirts, face masks, and car decals.
Lucier and Lavish Leggings owners Adrienne Sloan, Sherry Sloan and Jude Barbosa presented Walpole Island Chief Charles Sampson with a cheque at the Governance Building on the First Nation reserve.
“It started five months ago when the first graves were found,” Lucier said.
“I myself am Indigenous, a band member of Walpole Island, and the granddaughter of two residential school survivors. Adrienne Sloan a local resident who I have been best friends with since high-school and I were talking and so unbelievably upset over the news. We are both relatively new mothers so I think that made it hit home for us in a new light we had not experienced before.”
Lucier added: “We couldn’t get over the sadness and felt compelled to try to do something. I am a Graphic Designer and Adrienne had just started her new business in February 2021. Adrienne and I had collaborated once before so we had the idea to once again partner up. It started off with just designing the leggings and progressed into getting t-shirts made, car decals, and face masks. I produced the designs and Adrienne had the connections to have them made.”
Lucier said over the past five months, the group promoted the product mainly on Facebook.
“We reached people all over Chatham-Kent, Windsor, Sarnia, London, Winnipeg, and British Columbia,” Lucier said.
“We made sure to highlight why we were doing this, to bring awareness and would tell the story of the past to whomever would listen. Our goal wasn’t to make profit, as any profit that was made was donated. The goal was to help out and make as big of a difference as we could. When we first started planning we questioned how many people we would reach. We definitely did not expect it to get as big as it did.”
Lucier said the Lavish Leggings team “put in the hard work” as she had many long work days.
“If they are not an ideal example of friendship I don’t know what is,” she said.
“I hope we inspired others to stand up and make a change. You don’t have to do something big like we did. Just starting conversations with others and standing up for all people’s rights is what the world needs. We want to give a big thank you and chi-migwetch to everyone that supported, helped, purchased, and promoted us during this journey.”
In the photo above, from left: Adrienne Sloan, Brandie Lucier, Sherry Sloan and Chief Charles Sampson.
Check out the Lavish Leggings Facebook page, here.
