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FARGO — Most people know Marcie Pfeifer as the F-M Purse Lady. Women Long Wallet
And she’s never purchased a purse.
Pfeifer doesn’t care about brand names like Coach or Gucci. And even the few luxury purses she’s received, she’s given away to area shelters and help centers.
“I don’t know anything about purses. I could have handled a $20,000 purse and I didn’t know. My favorite donations are those bags that say you are awesome. These are just nicer,” Pfeifer said.
The idea of collecting purses — filling them with necessities like shampoo, toothbrushes, tampons and more — then giving them away to people in need began in 2019 after a former abusive boyfriend tried to run her off the road in Wisconsin.
After the attack, Pfeifer began questioning: “What would I have done if I had no place to go, or had no family to help? I keep going back to that, what do those women do? Or men? I would have still been in that relationship or he would have killed me at some point,” said Pfeifer from her south Fargo apartment.
She recently moved from a single to a double bedroom apartment to help store the hundreds of purses and bins of essential items she currently has in stock. Although at times she can barely afford the extra rent, she’s spent more than $7,500 on the goodies that go into each purse.
“Some months, I can barely afford the extra $100 but it’s worth it to help so many others. Thank you again for all of the help you’ve given me. I’d like to think we make a difference in this often bleak world,” Pfeifer posted to her Facebook page on Oct. 16.
At times, her cats, Barney and Joe, help as most cats can, sneaking into boxes and curiously playing with tampons and toothbrushes as she fills the purses. On Monday, Oct. 23, Barney proudly came in from her balcony with an autumnal golden leaf as if it was a rare catch to add to the bins.
“For the most part it’s donations. I usually only get donations if I post a story or a link. Some donations are random,” Pfeifer trailed on, switching topics quickly because she said she's had trauma in her life, including being raped as a young teenager.
“My idea was to have some purses in my trunk so if I ever came across someone who is homeless I would go, ‘Here, have a purse.’ But the reality is you don’t really come across too many homeless people in Fargo,” said Pfeifer, adding that she knows they are out there.
On any given night, there are about 1,000 people experiencing homelessness in the metro area , according to John Campbell, executive director of the Fargo-Moorhead Coalition to End Homelessness.
Pfeifer donates her purses to places like the Rape and Abuse Crisis Center on Eighth Street North, the YWCA on South University Drive, schools and elsewhere. She is looking for more places that need assistance with purses and essential items.
“I plan to continue this until I die,” said Pfeifer, who has given away 1,815 purses so far.
A pile of purses filled with essentials, destined for a local school, sit in her apartment’s entryway. She turned a bedroom into a storage area where toiletries are neatly stored in large plastic bins.
In the evenings, she’ll put on a movie and begin filling each purse by hand.
“I’m sitting down now to fold about 150 socks for the purses that need filling. Man, I should write an article for Fargo nightlife,” Pfeifer wrote in a Facebook post to her F-M Purse Lady page.
“I started this because people would ask, ‘Are you the purse lady?’ And so I went with it. If I get murdered for this, I'm going to be angry,” Pfeifer said, chuckling. She knows her hobby could come with some risks, but she’s not going to stop.
“I have not gone to individual requests because that would open the doors to shady characters. So I give the purses to agencies. I saw a guy once with a sign at Walmart, and thought I’d take the tampons out for him, but he said, ‘No those are perfect for gunshot wounds,’” Pfeifer said.
Jody Hudson, the director of development for the Rape and Abuse Crisis Center, said Pfeifer's work makes a profound impact on people, especially those who have to leave home in a hurry.
"She is really doing it. She dropped off a whole bunch of them last week. It's really powerful for those getting our services to know that someone in our community is thinking about them and caring for them. It's great to have toothpaste and deodorant, but for someone to go out of their way to help speaks volumes and also speak as to what kind of person she is," Hudson said.
Pfeifer looked into setting up a nonprofit to become the F-M Purse Lady full time, but she enjoys her day job taking care of people who are disabled, plus the process involved in registration is complicated.
Purses don’t stay in her apartment long. With a break in her services during the coronavirus pandemic and another earlier this year after several family members died, she has now gotten back into making sure properly-stuffed purses are going to those in need.
“But, it’s tampons, it’s always tampons. I’m also low on conditioner and lotion and in the winter everyone needs to get hats and gloves. I’m low on something, always,” Pfeifer said.
“I try to make sure there is quality stuff in there. Just because someone is homeless and they might not have much doesn't mean they should get inferior quality,” Pfeifer said.
Word of her work has reached outlying cities and towns. On Saturday, Oct. 28, Pfeifer, listed as a survivor of domestic abuse, will be speaking about the purse project to a congregation at Augustana Lutheran Church in Fergus Falls, Minn.
Shoulder Bag All donations can be arranged by contacting Pfeifer on her Facebook page, F-M Purse Lady, or by emailing marsee25@yahoo.com.