Image of members of the MHSA gather for a picture with donated products. Photo courtesy of the Medicine Hat Skateboard Association.
asmith@medicinehatnews.com
The Medicine Hat Skateboard Association is looking to end period poverty in the city with a returning outreach campaign.
This is the second year the association has done a drive to collect menstrual products for the Root Cellar Food and Wellness Hub, but Davie James said that this year, they’re planning a bit bigger.
“This year, we’re collaborating with not just the Root Cellar. We’re collaborating with Medicine Hat College and Redcliff Youth Centre people as well,” said James.
During meetings with the Root Cellar, they learned that while they raised roughly $6,000 worth of product last year, that only covers about two months within the city.
As a result, the Association has set their sights much higher this year, James says, with a hope of reaching $36,000, enough to provide menstrual hygiene goods for the city for an entire year.
“If you were to ask a bunch of skateboarders, what is their knowledge about menstrual products, it would be pretty minimal,” James said. “But once we got the education, we realized, ‘oh, this is a huge need in our community.'”
The Skateboard Association is challenging members of the community to purchase menstrual products and donate them at any of the various locations that have signed up to be a drop-off location, including the Root Cellar Food and Wellness Hub, Save-On-Foods, Station Coffee Company, Medicine Hat College, Sun Valley Honda and others in the city and in Redcliff. A full list of locations is available on the MHSA FaceBook.
“Something people can do is they can go and buy product, and then challenge five other people to go and buy product,” said James. “Let’s just get a viral campaign going in our own community, and maybe, you know, maybe it’ll spread like a wildfire to other cities. Who knows?”
