The LOHS and Lakeridge Period Clubs collaborated to hold a menstrual product drive during the week before winter break. The drive ran from Monday through Friday, with drop off bins at both high schools and one at the Lake Oswego Public Library. 

The idea for the drive began when a member of the Lakeridge club reached out to the president of the LOHS Period Club. “Before I even started the club, I reached out to one of the members I knew from Lakeridge who was doing their own club,” said junior Emelia Fuji Reichle, the club’s president. “She reached out to me and she said, ‘Would you guys in your club be interested in doing a community-wide drive with us?’ And so of course I said yes, because it’s super easy to set up a dropbox donation drive… Big props to Lakeridge — they did a lot more of the communication, which was really helpful.” 

For this first donation drive, their goals were smaller: “Really, it’s just as basic as helping at least one person, and if we’re able to do that, then I would say goal accomplished.”

The drive collected unopened, packaged disposable menstrual  products. The club is looking into accepting monetary donations and reusable products in the future. 

The Period Club is a new one to LOHS this year. “This year I wanted to start a club and be part of a club so I decided, ‘You know what? I’m going to start a club.’ So I decided to start Period Club. In the club, we obviously try to do donation drives to donate to local community members and just people around the community because people are always in need of it, in need of different products… We also work to find different educational tools, so I’ll pick a reading or some sort of article or video for us to watch together and discuss and just like make that conversation more normal. And then finding different activities to make it interesting and fun,” said Reichle. “We basically… educate ourselves and hopefully educate others to help fight the stigma against periods and also to donate to people.” 

“It’s never too late to come and volunteer or sit in on our meetings, we’re always open to new participants…  It’s so important to educate one another so we just want as many people as possible.”

Students can join Period Club through emailing Reichle or direct messaging the club’s Instagram account.