Kicking off Women’s History Month, three Quinnipiac University student organizations hosted “That’s on Period” Thursday night, packing bags filled with menstrual and hygiene products to donate to a local shelter.
The event, first introduced by a former president of the Organization of Latin American Students (OLAS), has become an annual effort following a successful first year in collaboration with Women Empowered. This year, OLAS partnered with Naturally Me and the Multicultural Student Leadership Council to collect donations for the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen in New Haven.
The Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen, known as DESK is a 38 year old local shelter that supports people experiencing homelessness in New Haven by providing meals and other basic needs.
Current OLAS Vice President Ashley Naranjo, a senior law in society major, selected the shelter after volunteering there throughout high school while growing up in East Haven.
“We’re just happy to do it, happy to give back,” Naranjo said. “We’re using the resources that are given to us, and we’re grateful that the school allowed us to have this event and support women who need it.”
Held in the School of Business, the event aimed to assemble 100 donation bags. Each bag included eight tampons — two light, two regular, two super and two super plus — along with panty liners, pads and other hygiene items such as hair ties, hand sanitizer wipes, feminine wipes, wet wipes, deodorant wipes, lip balm, a toothbrush and toothpaste set and a hairbrush.
“We have everything organized on different tables and someone wrote on the board what goes in each bag, just so people who come in and want to help out know how much of each item to put in,” Naranjo said. “We have a bunch of different stuff that we thought would be useful. Something that I would also need for my day to day life, that’s how I kind of approached it.”
All supplies for the event were purchased using the semester event budget allocated to student organizations by Quinnipiac’s Student Programming Board
Although attendance was smaller than expected, the executive boards of all three organizations — composed entirely of women — stayed to assemble all 100 bags themselves.
“Even if we don’t get a lot of people, it’s a great way for us as an e-board to just connect as well,” Naranjo said. “I guess it should be promoted more, especially because it’s also a good way for students who need volunteer hours. But either way, we still do it just to give back those in need.”
