Women’s Rights Club hosts annual Pad and Tampon Drive

Around early November, posters and donation boxes began popping up around ARHS, urging students to donate boxes of pads and tampons. This is part of the annual Women’s Rights Club Pad and Tampon Drive; students gather supplies to donate to the Amherst Survival Center, which also provides food, clothing, and healthcare to community members, all coordinated by volunteers. In addition to the Pad and Tampon Drive, the club will also host a Consent Week later in the year.

Led by senior Valeria Godoy-Ramirez, the WRC welcomes all students. The club emphasizes education, awareness, and inclusion, and meetings can include discussions, fundraiser planning, and more. “This week we are going to have a conversation about abortion rights,” said Godoy-Ramirez. With over 30 active members, the club is at its largest this year. “It’s exciting to see so many students interested in looking at this topic,” said club adviser Danielle Seltzer. 

A longstanding tradition, the Pad and Tampon Drive supports local menstruators in need and educates our school community about the reality of period poverty and the pink tax. According to the National Organization for Women, a person who menstruates will spend over 18,000 dollars on period products over their lifetime. “It’s one of those hidden costs that about half of the population is unaware of,” said Seltzer. “People are being educated [about period poverty] and people in need are being helped,” said Godoy-Ramirez.

Highlighting a larger issue within the United States, this drive sheds a light on the increasing difficulty menstruators face when it comes to healthcare access. “In America, women are already struggling,” said Shaniah Stockdale, an ARHS senior and secretary of the club. “With the upcoming presidency, it will be increasingly difficult to have access to menstruation products or birth control—things that women really need.”

Women’s healthcare has been a hot topic in the past few decades, in particular, abortion rights. Since Roe v Wade—a court case from 1973 that protected a woman’s right to choose—was overturned in 2022, women across the country have been expressing their outrage. Seltzer wants to bring awareness to the ways that all of our health is intertwined. “My goal is to show people that all of our healthcare is connected, and this is an issue for everybody,” she said.

With Donald Trump’s recent election win, women around the country are facing a scary reality. In particular, Project 2025 has raised concerns for the future of women’s healthcare. “The 2025 plan is one of the things that will ruin all the progress that women have made,” said Stockdale. “It will be a lot scarier to be a woman, especially in southern states.” 

Project 2025 is a detailed blueprint written by conservative lawmakers, focused on restricting access to education and basic healthcare for women and transgender people that many believe is linked to the Trump administration.

Looking to the future, the Women’s Rights Club is encouraging new conversations within our school community about issues that are important to them. Godoy-Ramirez hopes to emphasize the connections between feminism and other forms of activism. “Intersectionality is very important,” she said, “I want to make it a goal, to have more intersectional conversations about feminism.” Similarly, Stockdale would like to show the importance of accuracy when it comes to women’s issues. “There is a lot of misinformation out there,” she said. “Menstruation is a taboo subject that people don’t like talking about.”  

Godoy-Ramirez, Stockdale, and Seltzer all encourage students to join the club and donate pads and tampons directly to the Survival Center, now that the drive is over. “The Survival Center is currently lacking menstrual products,” said Godoy-Ramirez.

“It’s important to get stuff like that [pads and tampons] out to people who struggle with affording them,” said Stockdale. This year’s drive was a rousing success, but there will always be a need for resources such as menstrual products within our community.