Femme Aid Collaborative to launch product-donations drive on International Women’s Day

Oakwood High School students Ryann Mescher, Dana Clark, and Zoe Waller continue to tackle Period Poverty in Montgomery County. CONTRIBUTED

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

Oakwood High School students Ryann Mescher, Dana Clark, and Zoe Waller continue to tackle Period Poverty in Montgomery County. CONTRIBUTED
What to Know
By Sarah Franks
March 5, 2021
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Donations are being accepted to help continue a mission started by three young Dayton women to fight period poverty.

Femme Aid Collaborative, established by Oakwood High School students Ryann Mescher, Dana Clark and Zoe Waller in 2019, is continuing its fight to provide adequate access to period products to everyone in need across Montgomery County. The organization will host its third annual Period Product drive on March 8 in honor of International Women’s Day.

Donated menstrual-hygiene products can be dropped off at Heart Mercantile, Ivy, The Mall at Fairfield Commons Main Entrance, Germantown Public Library, and Eudora Brewing Company.

Femme Aid is accepting product donations through the end of March at all drop-off locations. Monetary donations are always accepted and go directly towards purchasing products that go back to Montgomery County residents in need. Find all supporting partner locations and charities at www.FemmeAid.com.

ExploreFeminine products needed! Nonprofit started by Oakwood students is here to help

“People in our community are put in the unthinkable position of using alternative supplies like toilet tissue, socks, or paper napkins as period supplies,” Mescher says. “This past year has been especially tough on a lot of families. Providing monthly menstrual hygiene supplies to our local nonprofits is our way of not sitting still during the pandemic, but actively helping people in our community who need these products.”

The average person uses six menstrual hygiene products a day throughout their cycle, adding up to almost 40 per cycle, according to a Femme Aid Collaborative press release.

Femme Aid Collaborative has collected and distributed over 750,000 period products over the past two years.

“One of the greatest needs for women, when struggling financially, is feminine hygiene products,” organizers at the Miami Valley Immigration Coalition COVID Relief Team said. “Many women will sacrifice their own needs to ensure that their family is taken care of. This is especially true when so many families have lost work due to COVID. Having access to feminine hygiene products brings relief and some feeling of normalcy to the women we are serving.”

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Femme Aid Collaborative is calling on other organizations and local companies to serve as collection sites and for individuals who would like to host a socially distanced product drive. Contact FemmeAid19@gmail.com for more information. People can also donate money to “The Dayton Foundation’s Femme Aid fund #8298″ online at www.daytonfoundation.org.

All donation proceeds go to purchasing menstrual hygiene products.

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About the Author

Follow Sarah Franks on twitter

Sarah joined the Dayton Daily News team in fall of 2019 covering general assignment. Since then, Sarah has covered the higher education beat, authored a daily COVID-19 column and currently covers Greene County.