Girls group in Mayo, Yukon, makes 'period packs' for women in need

It was an idea sparked by a magazine article, and it has grown into a community charitableinitiative led by a group of girls from Mayo, Yukon.

The group of teenagers hascollected donationsand assembled dozens of "period packs," to be distributed to other girls and women who may not be able to afford neededhygiene products.

"This is nice. You get it in a fancy bag, or maybe a backpack with a fancy wallet in it," said Asia Winter-Sinnott, a Grade 12 student who's part of a girlsgroup in Mayo.

"Mainly we were focusing on getting tampons and pads, but we also accepted donations of shampoos, toothbrushes, different hygiene products."

Kwasen Reid, a Grade 10 student in the group, says she was first inspired by a Cosmopolitanarticle about how homeless women deal with menstruation when they can't afford things such as tampons.

"It was so interesting, and kind of heartbreaking, actually," Reid said.

She then read about "period pack" initiatives elsewhere, and "I was like, wow, that issucha good idea."

Winter-Sinnott agreed.

"I mentioned it to the girls and they were really, really interested in itand they thought it was a great idea.They really wanted to try to help other people out."

A bunch of tampons on the porch

The group then set to work finding donations. They hungposters around Mayo, and started a Facebook group.

Pretty soon, they were inundated with tampons and pads, but also soaps, shampoos, lotions, hand sanitizer"everything, really," Reid said.

"People from town just came flooding in. My dad was a little uncomfortable that there was a bunch of tampons on the porch, all of a sudden. But it was OK," Winter-Sinnott said.

Theydivided the goods into purses and backpacks,then loaded them into a vehicle bound for Whitehorse.

The packs havenow been delivered to the Victoria Faulkner Women's Centre, the Whitehorse Outreach van, and other organizations, to distribute to women in need.

"It was incredible. People were so generous," said Winter-Sinnott.