Members of SDT, APP, and Her Campus in front the table where donations were collected.
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By Angelina Persaud, Managing Editor/Asst. News Editor
Women supporting other women was the theme for the feminine hygiene product drive sponsored by female-led organizations on campus including Sigma Delta Tau (SDT), Alpha Pi Phi (APP) and Her Campus.
The drive began on Feb. 27 on the quad where boxes of tampons, pads and other feminine hygiene products were piled into boxes.
The three female-led organizations on campus partnered up to create a feminine hygiene product drive as a way of showing support to local women in the community. Both sororities at Manhattan College, APP and SDT, as well as Her Campus geared up to collect and send the donations to the Rise of Broken Women non-profit organization. The non-profit was chosen by the executive boards (e-boards) of the sororities and Her Campus.
Rise of Broken Women was founded by Charlee Newman who experienced living in a homeless shelter firsthand as well as the struggles that came when she did not have access to feminine products during her menstrual cycle. She witnessed people resort to often unhygienic resolutions during her time there.
According to the charity’s website, they “Bring women and families currently in homeless shelters or low-income communities the necessary tools to liberate themselves from the poverty cycle.”
The organization itself is predominantly run by a team of women who enlist the aid of charity drives from the local community to support their mission.
Siena DeMarco, campus coordinator for Her Campus and external programming officer for APP, collaborated with both SDT and APP to organize the drive as a way of uniting people on campus towards a common cause.
“It is a good opportunity for girls on this campus to come together and do a very woman-focused day and support a female organization,” DeMarco said.
Chiara Gambrioni, philanthropy chair for APP, was involved in advertising the drive to attract more students to donate. She told The Quadrangle that this isn’t the first time the sororities and Her Campus have teamed up for an event, but is a collaborative experience that the e-board members look forward to continuing.
She also noted that the female-led organizations are preparing for International Women’s Day on March 8 where they will be hosting another large event, possibly in tandem with Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) and Lotus magazine.
“We’ll probably be doing some more by the upcoming semester and we’ve got International Women’s Day coming up,” Gambrioni said. “We have an event, I think we’ve got like 11 clubs joining us and we’re going to be in the quad along with the others [DKE].”
All members of both sororities and Her Campus echoed a similar sentiment about the purpose of holding drives such as this one: for women to support each other. Although the donations will be sent to Rise of Broken Women, members highlighted the importance of acknowledging ways to help local women in the community and giving back.
Danae Cecena, fundraising chair for APP, spoke about how she hopes students will benefit from seeing the drive on campus and potentially donate.
“[I hope to] help the women that we’re going to be donating this to so that they can have better access to feminine products that they normally don’t have,” Cecena said. “I’m just glad that we’re doing this and also so that people notice some things that we normally take for granted.”