Jana Girdauskas started her Period Purse campaign with one purse — now she has finished with 380.
“I’m completely overwhelmed,” the 40-year-old mother told The Bloor West Villager. “The kindness and generosity of people is mind-blowing.”
Five weeks ago, the Bloor West Village resident came up with an idea to donate old purses filled with feminine hygiene products like tampons and pads to Toronto’s homeless women.
She reached out to her local mom’s Facebook group and asked if anyone had used purses for her to donate, and that’s when the idea took off.
“It’s not so lovely to have this monthly friend … but it’s a birthright of ours,” she previously told The Villager. “Thinking of having it on the street has to be the worst place.”
On March 24, Girdauskas held a packing party inside Windermere United Church in Bloor West Village, and close to 40 volunteers turned out and prepared 313 purses for distribution.
“It’s something that’s so simple, yet so needed,” said Pina Santoro, one of the volunteers at the event. “How many purses do we have sitting in our closet, and how easy is it to go and fill it with pads, tampons and other feminine hygiene products because it’s what we use every day and we completely take it for granted.”
Girdauskas has partnered with several Toronto shelters and charities, and she and volunteers will be distributing the purses throughout the next month.
Furthermore, the project has expanded to five other cities in Canada: Ottawa, Durham, Brantford, London and Victoria, B.C.
And in April, she plans on organizing a drive in Toronto’s east-end.
“It wasn’t in my vision at all,” she said of the project’s growth. “I just can’t say no, and I’m just running with how this project is going.”
Girdauskas added she hopes to keep the campaign operational year-round.
“I’ll have to see what works best, maybe we do blitzes twice a year, and in the smaller cities once a year,” she said. “It’s definitely an organization that I’m going to have to continuing leading year-round.”
To learn more about the Period Purse campaign, visit its Facebook or Twitter page.