An encounter with a crying young woman and hearing her story lead Laura Beard to create Lovey Tags, a way to help women leaving harmful domestic situations. Beard, known by Lovey to her friends and family, said the young woman was shaking and crying as she entered the consignment shop with her grandmother.
“She said, ‘Honey, just go around and if you find it, whatever you find, I’ll buy it for you,” Lovey said of the grandmother. “And when the young girl walked into the other room,her grandmother turned to me and said she had just left a very violent, abusive relationship with just the clothes on her back. She doesn’t have anything.” Knowing she had items of her own that she had intended to tag for resale, Lovey decided to gather up her items and give them to the young woman at no cost.
“After they left, I stayed in my room and I just bawled,” she said. “And I told the Lord, there’s got to be something. There’s got to be some kind of purpose here’ … So my mind started racing. I knew people donate clothes to me all the time, so I can change the tag and whatever’s donated, domestic violence organizations, clergy or law enforcement can come in and get what they need. So the Lovey Tag was born.”
