Indiana Alumni Magazine
Handbags of Hope
Sophomore's handbag line raises big money for charity
Ali Spizman, a sophomore at IU Bloomington, started a handbag line when she was 15 and directed a portion of the selling price to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. To date, sales of the bags have generated more than $250,000 for the charity.
Photo Kevin Mooney.
A story that would fit right into the Today show got its start at the Today show.
Beginning with a chance encounter in 2002 on the set of the NBC morning show, IU Bloomington sophomore Ali Spizman created a handbag line and has raised more than $250,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
In 2002 Spizman, then 15, traveled with her mother, Robyn Spizman, to New York City. Robyn, an Atlanta-based consumer-affairs reporter and author, was appearing on a segment of Today, and Ali came along to be on the set and watch her mother.
Also on the set was Seth Goldberg, the CEO of a licensing and manufacturing company, who was there to unveil a new accessory line by pop singer Mariah Carey.
Goldberg, looking for a teenager's opinion of the line, asked the younger Spizman for her take.
"I think it's adorable, but it needs a handbag," Spizman, a telecommunications major, recalls saying.
Spizman says Goldberg was taken aback, but then asked her to come up with an idea for a handbag line and send it to him.
"I was serious about it," Spizman says. "I put together a business proposal and mock-ups. I totally ran with it."
Goldberg was impressed with her ideas, and Spizman was on her way to having her own handbag line.
Given her background, the confidence and maturity Spizman showed is not all that surprising.
By the time she met Goldberg, she was five years beyond a year-long gig as a cast member of the Cartoon Gang, a children's show on the Cartoon Network. (Asked on the show who she would rather have as a father, Fred Flintstone or George Jetson, she answered, "George Jetson, because he gets home more quickly from work.")
And when she was 13, she had published a book, The Thank You Book for Kids, intended to help children write memorable thank-you notes.
Creating a handbag line would be a good enough story, but soon before the handbag line was to be released, Spizman was inspired to make a change to it.
She heard the story of Hope Stout, who had died of a rare form of bone cancer when she was 12.
Before she died, Stout had been offered a wish by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Instead of taking her wish, she asked that the wishes of 155 other children in the Charlotte, N.C., area be granted before hers.
Stout's story was picked up by a syndicated radio show, and listeners and others responded by donating more than $1.2 million in four weeks.
Soon after Stout died, Spizman heard of her story and was inspired to name the handbag in her memory. Spizman also decided that a portion of the price of the Handbag of Hope would benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
"I have always been taught to give to others," says Spizman, who recently published her second book, The Power of a Wish: A Celebration of Love, Hope & Gratitude, which features stories about "wish experiences" of children in the Make-A-Wish program.
Spizman's handbag line was launched in April 2005 in New York City, with Mariah Carey in attendance.
Claire's, a national retail store geared toward teenagers, began carrying the line on its shelves, and it was a hit.
The line has expanded to include a wide variety of patterns and styles and other accessories. Spizman hasn't personally designed most of the bags, but she works with the professional designers and gives final approval on all of them.
To date, sales of the handbags have generated more than $250,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Spizman's ultimate goal is $1.2 million, the amount raised for Hope Stout.
"I want the bag to sell well," Spizman says. "For the fact that the Make-A-Wish Foundation benefits so greatly." 