Women of West St. Paul

Women of West St. Paul Host Fourth Annual Pad Drive

We Haven't Forgotten

Ever since first female mayor of West St. Paul Jenny Thompson Halverson said, “This won’t be forgotten, folks” after blowing the whistle on a whole lot of bad, misogynistic behavior during her time on city council and as mayor, WoW has made it a goal to increase civic engagement, make room for women, non-binary, and other underrepresented folks at the decision-making table, and make West St. Paul a more progressive place to work, live, and play.

May 18, 2018 marked a historic meeting: Hundreds of West St. Paul citizens came to support the mayor, denounce both situational and systemic sexism and other city-wide issues, and rally for change in our city. Each year we kick off our hygiene drive in May to remember to advance our causes.

We raise money and collect products such as tampons, pads, and cups to help our menstruating neighbors get the supplies they need. We’ve changed the way we raise money and collect products each year based on need and safety protocols.

Drive-By Tampon Drive 2021

We’ll have a variety of safe ways to donate, drop off, or otherwise participate in this year’s drive.

We will take product and donation drop-offs at the meeting and outside afterward (approximately 6:30-7:30 p.m.). Please follow social distancing, masking, and safety guidelines.

Watch this space for fun dropoff options!

Drive-By Pickups

This year, we're proud to facilitate Drive-By Pickups for residents of West St. Paul who want an easy and contact-less way to donate. While this drive started after someone left boxes of hygiene products to harass and intimidate, we're turning the concept on its head and encouraging participants to donate by leaving their hygiene product donations on their own doorsteps or mailboxes.

If you would like us to pickup your donation from your address, text 'Donate' to (651) 359-9277. We've built an automated text messaging service that will gather the info we need to pick up your donation. It's free and easy, although standard text messaging rates may apply.

As of now, we’ll have drive-bys on the following dates:

Who Gets the Products?

This year, we will be donating all the proceeds from our fundraiser—we don’t take a dime—to our rock-solid local partner, Neighbors, Inc. as well as our new partner this year, District 197 schools, who both regularly raise the alarm that they do not have enough to meet demand.

We'll also be running a new partnership with Patricia's Hair Studio, who will be doing a trial of being a "safe space" in the community for menstruating people in need to get period product.

Did you know? Hygiene products such as pads, tampons, cups, and such are among the highest-demand products at food banks and other organizations who work with communities to help meet their daily needs. Volunteers at Neighbors, Inc. told WoW they often have to open the boxes and break them apart to try to give clients a few each and stretch the donations. When we donated to mutual aid groups in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, we were received with extremely excited faces and arms and told our products flew off the tables.

Just Joining Us?

Yay! Good! We are SO HAPPY to have you here.

If you want to read more about how this fundraiser came to be, check out this Teen Vogue story.

We’ve been really successful in getting the word out and helping our neighbors—and we’re nowhere near stopping. We try to top our efforts each year. Help us!

Every penny has always gone toward products. This is an all-volunteer operation.

Take My Money!

Want to just drop us some cash and not worry about the rest? We’re skipping an online fundraiser so we can funnel the very mostest money to the people who need it, so we’re taking a cue from mutual aid movements to drop cash to purchase products.

Contact Us

Need another way to donate or drop off products? Have questions or connections or want to help?