At the age of 25, Cherie Christmas’ home burned down leaving her with only two outfits. After spending $200 on new clothes and working to buy supplies, she decided to create her own line of luxury handbags. Within one year, Christmas was a millionaire.
On October 1, Christmas, now 55 years old and the founder and CEO of MAXX NEW YORK, shared this experience with a room of about 200 women. She was the keynote speaker for the Town of Brookhaven, New York’s 10th Annual Women’s Conference and Exposition.
“I think that telling my story, it gets the women to understand that we all have a lot of things we’ve been through and some are worse than others,” said Christmas, “The bottom line is life is about hardship and also feeling good.”
The theme of the conference was ‘Inspire, Educate and Motivate.’ The Town of Brookhaven’s Division of Women’s Services organized the conference to “promote wellness and personal growth for women,” according to Sharon Boyd, the Division of Women’s Services program director.
Speakers, representatives and vendors at the conference also served to promote women’s well-being. They ranged from the Suffolk County Response Hotline, which helps women in abusive relationships, to other women-owned business vendors. One group, the Suffolk County Women’s Business Enterprise Coalition (SCWBEC), enables women to network, according to Lorraine Kimmey, the chair of SCWBEC.
For women to really succeed, Christmas believes they need to be able to get a job. Therefore, the revenue from the tickets and raffle went to support Brookhaven’s Dress for Success. The program provides homeless women with professional attire to help them get a job. Brookhaven’s Dress for Success is now in its 17th year and the only location on Long Island.
“I’m sitting with this lady who I didn’t know, and we’re talking about the kinds of volunteering we do. Now she knows something more about Dress for Success, so she’ll go back and tell others, ” said Patricia Krowczyk, a volunteer for Brookhaven’s Dress for Success.
This is how Christmas found out about the organization.
“Many years ago when I started my company, I was looking at things and talking to people about being homeless and not having clothes and someone mentioned the charity to me….I started making some phone calls and I called them and said, ‘You know, I’m a handbag designer, is there anything I could do to help? Maybe donate some handbags?’” said Christmas.
Now, homeless women from Long Island can get one of her handbags for free from Brookhaven’s Dress for Success program and bring it on a job interview.
Christmas believes these outfits need to be paired with confidence in order for women to get a job.
Christmas said, “My mom instilled a lot of confidence in me and no matter what we went through, I knew I was a survivor and I would be okay, and I really hope that even if one woman walks out of here today thinking that, it makes me feel good.”