To the Editor:
Even today, menstrual periods remain a stigmatized topic, and many issues regarding menstrual injustice go overlooked. However, the inaccessibility of menstrual products negatively affects menstrators more than people think. A recent study found that “…67% of students aged 13-19 years have missed out on school because they didn’t have the period products they needed.”
The Period Club at Wilton High School has changed the status quo, by bringing attention to advocating for free period products in the school, and to the issue of period poverty (the inaccessibility of menstrual products).
Presidents of the club, Anagha Khisti and Emily Gregson, and vice president Grace Biondo recently spoke with WHS Principal Dr. Robert O’Donnell to have pads and tampons distributed in the bathrooms of the high school for students to use to ensure that girls and menstruating people alike feel more comfortable going to school, and ensure that their needs are valued.
Now that this goal has been accomplished, the period club has taken a small step in alleviating period poverty in the local community, another often overlooked issue. Many people aren’t aware of the fact that 1 in 8 women and girls live below the federal poverty line in Connecticut. Many of these people may suffer from the lack of accessibility to menstrual products. The Period Club, including board members Faith Anderson, Mahika Godbole and Aadi Vohra directed its efforts toward providing hygiene products for menstruating people in local homeless shelters by organizing several fundraisers and collecting just under $1,000 [to purchase these products].
On Saturday, Dec. 9, the club donated the items they secured to the Stamford social services organization Inspirica.
The Period Club is planning its next bake sale at Orem’s Diner on Sunday, Jan. 14, and is thriving under the support of Wiltonians. Please come out to support the Period Club and learn more about this worthy cause.
Anagha Khisti (WHS ’24)
Grace Biondo (WHS ’24)