Sarnia’s Tampon Tuesday chapter is celebrating half a decade of community generosity.
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“When we started this five years ago, we didn’t know if it would last,” said the chapter’s Michelle Parks.
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But donation events, from 5 to 7 pm on the first Tuesday of each month, summarized last year after a break during the COVID-19 pandemic, bring in about 50 boxes of menstrual products a month for people who otherwise couldn’t afford them, she said.
“It’s really amazing,” Parks said of the support the chapter has received, including donations from 75 organizations who’ve made donations.
They’ll be honored at the fifth anniversary celebration May 28 from 5 to 8 pm in the SidePockets room at Stoke’s Inland, she said.
Menstrual product donations are also being accepted, she said.
More than 10,400 boxes of menstrual products have been donated via the chapter to date, mostly to the Inn of the Good Shepherd’s food bank, Parks said.
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People can access those without being a food bank member, she noted.
“If you are just having a tough month and having to decide between feeding your kids and menstrual products, you can always go to the Inn and they will supply you with menstrual products free of charge,” she said.
Donations have also been made to 16 other local organizations, such as Noelle’s Gift and River City Vineyard, and to local schools, she said.
In 2021, Ontario launched a free menstrual products in schools programbut Parks said she’s been hearing from schools that they haven’t been receiving enough supply for their washrooms.
“If a school contacts me directly, I make sure they receive them as well,” she said.
Parls, who serves on the chapter’s five-member organizing committee, said typically about 30 people attend monthly donation events, she said.
Donations have “just started to creep back up” to the 75 to 100 boxes a month that came in before the pandemic, she said. “So that’s fantastic.”
Inn of the Good Shepherd executive director Myles Vanni is scheduled to speak at the anniversary celebration, Parks said.
Sarnia started offering menstrual products free in select city washrooms in 2020, and made dispensers permanent in nine city facilities in 2021.
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