Women support women. Period.
Four juniors come together to end period poverty in Dayton
Checked Off: The leaders are enthusiastic about the check that they received as a representation of their accomplishment at the Jamboree football game. That night, the ladies of Femme Aid held a fundraiser to offer community members a chance to support those in need. At the end of the night, the ladies collected approximately $1,600. Photo contributed by Audrey Bergeron.
Over the course of 2019, Femme Aid Collaborative has become well-known throughout the high school and the Montgomery County. Through fundraisers and spreading awareness, Femme Aid Collaborative has made an example of what it means to promote the welfare of others in a community.
Femme Aid Collaborative is an organization that aims to end “period poverty”, a phrase used to describe the situation that many women in the nation go through every month: should she buy her menstrual products or groceries?
Femme Aid Collaborative is run by four juniors: Claire Parker, Dana Clark, Ryann Mescher, and Zoe Waller. Parker is in charge of business operations and analytics, Clark directs corporate and community outreach, Mescher runs business strategy and finance, and Waller is the director of marketing strategy and technology.
The girls hope to remove this issue from Dayton by raising money to buy menstrual products and delivering them to charities that can give them to women in need.
“Femme Aid has grown a lot since we first started,” Clark said. “The number of products collected continues to grow.”
The Ax recorded a podcast in spring of 2019 about the organization’s work. Click below to listen.
Femme Aid has many accomplishments since the organization’s launch in 2018. They have received multiple awards for their philanthropy. News Center 7 gave Femme Aid the Making a Difference Award in July, and The United Way of Greater Dayton recognized them as the Volunteers of the Month in August.
Additionally, Femme Aid set an objective for themselves at the beginning of the year.
“Meeting our goal in six months,” Mescher said. “So, 100,000 products.”
People can donate money, menstrual products, and become an ambassador through the group’s ambassador program. As an ambassador, one hosts period drives (fundraisers planned to obtain money to buy products for those in need), and spreads the word about Femme Aid and period poverty.
“We just did a competition to try to get money to help improve the ambassador program,” Mescher said. “Right now it is smaller than we’d like it to be, so we’re trying to expand that.”
Although the women of Femme Aid are making a great difference in the community now, they still consider the organization’s plans for the future, specifically after they graduate.
“We’d like the ambassador program to kind of take over and represent us at speeches, competitions, and stuff that would help us grow,” Mescher said.
Not only has Femme Aid helped the lives of women in the Dayton area, but it has also affected the leaders.
“I am able to see the effect we have on people who are struggling in our community,” Clark said. “It is great to see that we are making a difference.”
Want to help these ladies in their efforts to end period poverty? Become an ambassador or donate to Femme Aid at www.femmeaid.com.
