Women of West St. Paul Celebrate Fifth Anniversary With Big Pad Drive Goal

Thanks to Blue Sky Bookkeeping for their support.

The local advocacy group Women of West St. Paul kicked off their fifth pad drive with a huge goal: $10,000 in donations and period products in 10 weeks.

Why it matters: “More than half the population gets a period every 28 days for decades,” said Katie Dohman, one of the Women of West St. Paul (WoW) organizers. “[Yet] 25% of people do not have access to products that they need to carry on with dignity in their daily lives, from attending school to going to work. It affects quality of life.”

Past success: In previous efforts, WoW has raised nearly $15,000 and literal truckloads of period products.

So far: This year’s efforts have already raised $3,185 in cash donations and products since the pad drive launched last week.

How to Donate

• Donate: You can donate money via Venmo and PayPal in an effort to avoid vendor processing fees.
• Drop off: You can contact WoW to coordinate a drop off. They’re also organizing ‘fill a trunk’ events in July and August with more details coming soon. Update: Such as the Art Park Pad Drive on August 10.
• Click and ship: You can also buy period products from WoW’s wishlist on Amazon.

Where are products going: Neighbors Inc., the local food shelf serving northern Dakota County, which WoW organizer Katie Dohman described as “amazing, incredible, generous, and kind.”

• The need: “Pads and tampons are important basic needs that help contribute to women’s personal health as well as their ability to be successful at work and school,” said Heidi Satre, the director of community engagement for Neighbors, Inc. “The people we serve are very happy that Neighbors provides hygiene items—including pads and tampons.”
• Tears and cheers: “Neighbors, Inc. has been an incredible partner to this community,” Dohman said. “They are staffed with the most wonderful volunteers, trying to help all of us out, and many of them have cried, cheered, and confided in members of WoW about the great need right here in our community. They often have to break apart boxes—one volunteer neighbor told me she portioned out five pads to each client—to help everyone out a little. It’s not nearly enough and it’s a quickly depleting resource.”

Period Stigma

The regular, ongoing expense of period products is a serious barrier for people who menstruate. According to WoW:

• Nearly 17 million people live in period poverty in the U.S.
• Nearly 14% of college-age people who menstruate have not been able to afford products in the last year.
• Two-thirds of low-income women cannot afford products each month.

Those challenges have real impacts:

• Depression: People who reported period insecurity in the last year were also the most likely to report moderate to severe depression.
• Worry: A third of parents worry about being able to afford products for their children.
• Missing school: 20% of school-age people who menstruate have missed school because they didn’t have period products.
• Disrupt learning: “Students can face numerous barriers to education, and access to menstrual products should not be one of them,” said ISD 197 Superintendent Peter Olson-Skog. “When students don’t have easy access to these products, it can disrupt their ability to learn effectively.”

How do we overcome that stigma?: “We talk about it, bluntly, plainly, and compassionately. We educate. We organize,” said Dohman. “This is not a fringe issue. It’s a natural, human bodily process and should not be cloaked in shame.”

Role for the allies: “Those who do not menstruate have a huge role to play!” said Dohman. “Getting educated, and educating others, being allies to those who do get periods regardless of gender, and sharing the lift their privilege (class, race, etc.) provides means we all do better and provide continuing equity to our community.”

Local Change Spreads

In 2021, WoW learned that nurses in ISD 197 were buying period products with their own money to help students. So they flooded the schools with donated products and advocated for support.

• Local win: “We were able to convince the district to add period products as a line item to their budget, freeing us up to help another organization, another person, another family,” said Dohman.
• Welcoming all students: “By including menstrual products as a line item in our budget at the beginning of 2022, we aligned our finances with our goal of being an accessible and inclusive space for all students,” said Olson-Skog.
• Wider impact: That change is now going statewide as the Minnesota legislature passed a measure requiring all districts to provide period products.

Leading the nation: In 1981, Minnesota became the first state to exempt period products from sales tax.

Community Change

So much to give: “It’s unacceptable that the need exists when we have so much to give,” said Sara Blair, one of the WoW organizers.

Who can make change: “You don’t have to have a fancy title or an elected position to do something this great, this impactful, and this sustainable for your own communities,” said West St. Paul City Council Member Wendy Berry. “There are a whole lot of people involved in making this kind of a change, and they’re a whole bunch of my favorite people, too.”

What we’re capable of: “The pad drive is a positive way to rally around and remember how far we’ve come and what a community is truly capable of with some concerted effort,” said Dohman. “It also turns out, it brings a lot of joy and peace, and couldn’t we all use a little more of that?”

Sept. 16, 2023 Update: $15,000+ Raised

WoW raised more than $15,000 in period products.

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