Story by Isu Park
Staff Writer
Photo by Samantha Shiroishi
Staff Photographer
On Tuesday, Jan. 31, a student led period product drive launched on campus. Run by senior Sarah Chung, the drive is collecting all period hygiene products as donations for the South Pasadena Public Library. Chung collaborated with the SPHS .GEN club and its president, senior Stephanie Law, to organize this donation drive and gather all of the needed materials.
.GEN became South Pasadena’s first menstrual equity organization in 2020, initially working to change school policies on menstrual health and empowering the spread of accurate information on reproductive health and social issues like period poverty. In the past, the club organized educational workshops examining these topics. .GEN began collaborating with Chung in November of 2022 to conduct donation drives for the library.
“.GEN has hosted donation drives in both December and February to supply Sarah with menstrual products for her Gold Award Project. Pretty soon, we may also be checking in a couple times every month at the South Pasadena Public Library to see if their bathrooms are stocked with these products,” Law said.
Chung chose this project as her Girl Scouts Gold Award project, inspired by the period product shortage that occurred over the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. After California law instated a requirement of all public schools to carry period products in bathrooms, Chung felt there should be a way to extend these effects.
“We should be expanding this accessibility of products to other public spaces, too, like the library,” Chung said.
Moreover, Chung decided the optimal way to carry her drive was through the SPHS campus:
“This is also about involving the student body; a lot of people at our school and in our neighborhood have the resources to donate.”
In coordinating with the South Pasadena Public Library alongside .GEN, Chung hopes to successfully complete her project, with a goal of enough products to sustain two months of donations to the library. Any donations, including pads, tampons, and panty liners, are being collected in the SAC room from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. every school day until Friday, Mar. 3.
