CULLMAN, Ala. – Nine months ago, April Bowen German started Victoria’s Hope, a charity for single parents to honor her mother, Victoria Hammond Hankey, who died last year from pancreatic cancer. At the time, she could not imagine the positive response she would get from the community of Cullman County. Now, during Cullman’s Strawberry Festival, her project is getting another shot in the arm: a sweet-smelling shot in her mother’s favorite scent.
Joseph Butts, owner of Southern Scents, makes bath and body products which he is selling at the Strawberry Festival. After discovering German and Victoria’s Hope through mutual social media contacts, he came up with an idea to help. He has developed an entire line of soaps and other bath and body products that are lavender scented, Victoria Hankey’s favorite scent. Some of the products are even colored purple, representing the official color of pancreatic cancer memorial ribbons. Proceeds from sales of the items, which are marked with a special label to distinguish them from other Southern Scents products, will go to Victoria’s Hope.
Butts shared, “I knew that that was one of the things I want to be involved in, was try to help out locally. You know, I try to shop locally; I try to do all the things I can locally. They’re just really good people. April was my daughter’s teacher at Good Hope, and I just feel like if I can help out, I should.
“I haven’t always had the means to help people out, and it’s just kind of one of the things that brings me joy is to help. What brings me joy is to see other people happy. And it’s one of those things that I have the means now that I can make these products and, through that, help- who knows how many people we’ll be able to help? It was just easier to help a larger group of people doing it this way than I could ever have done monetarily, on my own.”
Butts has been working hard to make sure that plenty of products are available for purchase, and anyone who would like to drop off a monetary donation of any amount will receive lip balm and a Victoria’s Hope decal.
German told The Tribune, “I’m just overwhelmed at the amount of help that our community has given Victoria’s Hope. I never would have thought, just nine months into it, that we would have a soap that someone is naming in my mom’s honor. I’m just so appreciative of what he did, and he’s just a great person for doing that.”
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