"Fashion instills confidence as well as dignity," Treger Strasberg on #MAKEYOURMARC

Marc Fisher LTD's #MAKEYOURMARC initiative celebrates women, fashion, and philanthropy by highlighting the positive impact these things have on the community. The women selected for initiative receive grants of up to 5000 dollars from Marc Fisher LTD to help support their various causes.

Treger Strasberg, one of the many women who has made her "marc," is the chief executive officer of Humble Design. Her organization is committed to helping mothers and children who are coming out of homelessness.

The inspiration for Humble Design was born out of Strasberg's non-profit work. In 2009, Strasberg realized that despite raising three children, she had several hours of free time, so, she began volunteering at a non-profit. While she was volunteering there, she became close with a woman who ran the front office. She noticed one day that the woman, who usually had a very bubbly personality, wasn't acting like her self. The woman then confided in Strasberg that within two weeks she and her two kids would homeless.

"She was my contemporary. She was my friend. I couldn't fathom the heartache she felt while speaking those words," Strasberg said.

This moment inspired to Strasberg to co-found Humble Design. The organization's main goal is to help these women and children rebuild their lives by taking donations of gently used furniture and home goods, and repurposing them to build a comfortable home. The women and children who often leave these homeless shelters typically do not possess any furniture, kitchenware, or usual household appliances.

Treger Strasberg is one of the many women that #MAKEYOURMARC honors

As a result, they often return to homeless shelters. Despite how difficult shelter life is, it's preferable to sleeping in a room or house with no furniture or pots and pans to cook with.

Strasberg's efforts to aid homeless women and children have not been in vain. Since Humble Design was founded in 2009, they have aided 600 homes with accruing furniture and home goods. Her greatest inspiration has come from all the women she has helped throughout the years.

"My role models have become the women that we help," she said. "They are fighters. They push through UNIMAGINABLE situations and keep their families together and maintained through it all. There are mothers we work with who give up their own bedrooms and sleep in a closet or on a couch to allow the children to have their own room. There are moms who work the night shift while their kids are sleeping and then are chipper and sweet while they get them off to school in the morning, some too tired to stand."

Of course, as part of the fashionable #MAKEYOURMARC initiative, Strasberg also sees the role that fashion plays in helping women find themselves and become stronger.

"Fashion is the same as interior design as it instills confidence as well as dignity," she said. "When we first meet these women, their eyes are downcast, their shoulders slumped and they have a hard time making eye contact. After we design and decorate their home, their shoulders are square, they look you right in the eye and they lift their chin in pride. Fashion has the same impact on the individual. In the non-profit world, you will rarely hear dignity being discussed. In the attempt to provide basic services, restoring dignity seems like an afterthought, but it is the very thing many families are looking for. Dignity can repair large tears in a person's life."

In terms of where she sees Humble Design headed in the future, she hopes to eventually find a partner to help them expand in nationwide. In the mean time, she intends to continue to do great work for women and children in need, all with her passion for philanthropy, fashion, and humanitarianism held dear to her heart.

photo:Courtesy of HL Group