Teenage crusaders set sights on bigger goal of collecting 1 million products to fight ‘period poverty’

A group of local girls with ending “period poverty” in their sights are aiming even higher.

Femme Aid Collaborative exceeded its goal to collect and distribute 100,000 period products within 60 days of launch, according to a press release.

>> Oakwood girls taking on ‘period poverty’

Now the group's four founders — Oakwood High School sophmores Claire ParkerRyann Mescher, Zoe Waller  and Dana Clark —  are trying collect and distribute 1 million products by year's end.

“The support from the community and women who have struggled with period poverty has been overwhelming,” Clark said as part of the release. “We know we're making a difference and on the right path to ending period poverty in our community.”

Social service organization have identified lack of feminine hygiene problem as an issue that impacts some homeless and  financially underprivileged women and girls.

According to Always, a feminine hygiene company, nearly one in five American girls have either left school early or missed school entirely because they did not have access to period products.

Launched in December, Femme Aid Collaborative supplied a dozen Dayton-based charities with 116,000 period products.

WANT TO HELP? 

Period products can be dropped off at  collection bins, which can be found at Rinse Cycle, 760 S Patterson Blvd. in Dayton; Speakeasy Yoga, 510 E. Third St. in Dayton; Heart Mercantile, 438 E. Fifth St. in Dayton and Eudora Brewery, 3022 Wilmington Pike in Kettering.

>> RELATED: The new Eudora Brewing Company location is bigger AND better 

Financial donations also can be made at FemmeAid.com. Checks can be mailed to The Dayton Foundation, 40 N. Main St., Suite 500 Dayton, Ohio 45423 (note in memo section Femme Aid Fund #8298).

“Period poverty isn’t just Femme Aid Collaborative’s issue to solve,” Mescher said. “We will continue to collect, distribute and work toward 1 million this year, but we need the community to continue to donate and give to our collection bins. Together we are confident we can end menstrual inequality in Dayton.”

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