Members of the Jamestown Kiwanis Satellite Club pose with their donation to the I Support the Girls organization. Photo: Jamestown Kiwanis

JAMESTOWN, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The Kiwanis Satellite club of Jamestown recently partnered with the organization, I Support the Girls, to hold a collection drive for women and girls in our community.

“Since Covid-19 began, and even before, many families have been unable to afford or obtain the personal feminine products that they need each month,” member Chelsey Francis stated. “We came across I Support the Girls and their mission instantly resonated with us, which is to ‘collect and distribute essential items, including bras, underwear, and menstrual hygiene products, allowing women experiencing homelessness, impoverishment, or distress to stand tall with dignity.'”

A quote from their website motivated the Satellite club to take action.

“’A woman should never have to choose between feeding herself, and her personal health. Every woman should have the ability to maintain her dignity.’ We knew as a club that this would also align with our Kiwanis mission which is “to improve the world one child and one community at a time.”

After several emails with the local affiliate in Bismarck, Francis were able to nail down some dates for the collection as well as some goals for what we wanted to achieve with this drive.

“Our goals started low with 25 boxes of tampons, 24 boxes of pads, 50 bras, and 50 underwear. We were able to blow most of these goals out of the water with the help and support of the wonderful community of Jamestown. We ended up with 14 new bras, 7 gently used bras, 103 pairs of underwear, 254 individual tampons, 790 feminine pads, 30 pairs of socks, 5 shampoos, 10 deodorants, 3 toothbrushes/toothpastes, and 5 lotions.”

The Jamestown Kiwanis Satellite club will be donating all of the items to two different organizations in Jamestown that will disperse the products to various women and girls that they believe have the most need for them. The items will be going to Community Action and the B-Unique clothing closet up at the Jamestown High School.

“We want to thank everyone who donated and these wonderful locations who agreed to take on this venture with us,” Francis added. “We would also like to thank I Support the Girls for allowing us to help out the women here in our own community and helping to get their name out there as well.”

To date, I Support the Girls have collected and donated 741,000 bras, 7,200,000 menstrual hygiene products, and partnered with 1,800 partner organizations. Since Covid-19 began in March, they have donated over 2 million products and there has been a 35% increase in requests for products.

“We are very proud to help them collect and distribute even more,” Francis stated.