By: Kesley Rowe
As February ends and March begins, the annual Tampon Tuesday event starts again at St. Joe’s.
Tampon Tuesday was created by Mandi Fields, a resident of London, Ontario, who recognized the need for menstrual products in her community. The movement was a success and made its way throughout Ontario until hitting Windsor. The high school community’s Tampon Tuesday event - started by Brennan student Mira Gillis and fellow Laser Jada Malott - was brought into fruition in the 2018-2019 school year.
“It started when I was in [the] ninth grade,” said Malott, now in her senior year of high school. “ I was involved with [Tampon Tuesday] because my dad had a radio show and he was always encouraged to try and collect using his radio show as promotion and things like that.”
Already passionate about women’s health, Jada reached out to the equally passionate Mira Gillis and put together a competition between St. Joe’s and Brennan to see which school could collect the most menstrual products. “We kind of went into it blind - we didn’t know if it was gonna be received well by students or not because we are aware periods are pretty taboo to bring into high schools and to talk about in high schools, but the collection numbers blew my expectations away first year.”
St. Joe’s and Brennan collected a combined total of 500+ boxes the first year. Since then, the event has been an annual occurrence for both schools’ students. “Y’know, I recognized the need, I recognized how successful it was in our high schools, and the conversation it generated in high schools. We had boys talking about periods which was, like, revolutionary, so that’s what pushed me to do this every year.” Said Malott.
Tampon Tuesday has a special place for Jada, who recounted stories her father told her about his childhood living in poverty in West Windsor and downtown Toronto.
“A lot of times, my grandmother had to make that decision at the checkout counter at a grocery store whether she wanted to buy a box of tampon’s for herself or whether she wanted to pay for my dad and his sister’s food,” said Malott. “...hearing those stories from my family and hearing those kinds of testimonials from other women and people who menustrate in the community really is what has drawn me to this. And knowing the impact that Tampon Tuesday has on our community is what pushes me to do this every year and to get up and talk about uncomfortable things in front of people because I’ve learned not to care about this stigma.”
The stigma around menstruation is not a discovery. For many years, discussions surrounding periods were kept quiet. As a woman who menstruates myself, I can recall the times I spent hiding pads and whispering about periods to conceal the fact that I menstruated like many others in my community. Jada believes this stigma is due to the lack of education and conversation surrounding periods. “It’s been coached to us that we can’t talk about periods because they’re gross or something or because it has to do with vaginas - who knows, really? But for some reason, we’ve been conditioned to not talk about periods; it’s supposed to be hush hush,” she says. “A lot of us laugh when we hear the word “period” a lot of us widen our eyes when someone mentions a period in broad daylight conversation like I do - people think I’m crazy, and it’s all a result of stigma. We don’t want to talk about it so it just ends up perpetuating itself where you’re not allowed to talk about it because the stigma says so,”
Jada believes that it is essential for people to be educated on menstruation as it’s the only way to break the stigma surrounding the topic. Once the stigma is gone, we can focus on assisting those who can’t afford menstruation products in our communities.
“The hardest part about donating to Tampon Tuesday is getting over the barrier of the discomfort. That’s the hardest part, but I believe in our St. Joe’s community, and I think we have a lot of passion at this school. I’m very lucky to go to a school that has so much passion and so much school spirit.”
And for those who donate, they are sure to reap the benefits of it. “There is $1000 for the school that collects the most menstrual products to be donated to a charity of their choice,” says Malott. “We’re also offering dress downs for students who donate, so you should also donate because it means you get two dressdowns if you donate a box of pads [or] tampons, if the boxes are small, two boxes will count for your dressdown passes and if you don’t want to bring in a box, you can also make monetary donations, it’s $10.” More recently, Jada announced that the winning class will be treated to a Subway lunch. In addition, all donators will also be entered into a raffle to win items like the Airpods Pro and gift cards to various fast-food chains like McDonald’s.
Tampon Tuesday at St. Joe’s will run until Monday, March 7th. If you wish to donate, you must bring all products and/or monetary donations to your third period class. If you do not have a third period class, you can bring products and donations to Campus Ministry with your name on it. Students in Cohort D can bring their contributions to a cart located outside the building or call the office and have someone pick them up. Participation is strongly encouraged, so get out there and get involved, Lasers!