Girl Strong hosted a Winter Kit Drive for Unhoused Women from December 5 to 13, where they collected donations. Some of the items that they asked for were bottled water, period products, combs, and socks. All the donations are going to people in the local area.
“It revolves around women in Columbia and people at school, men and women, can all contribute to it,” said Addison Hunker, a member of Girl Strong.
They are not working with any specific organization to collect and distribute the donations, completely run by them. The club has publicized it by putting up posters and including it in the Spartan Mailer. They are going out into the community themselves to give out the kits.
“We’re going to our local homeless shelters,” said Jackie Ozanich, one of the presidents of Girl Strong. “And then, we are going to also distribute the bags and just keep them in our cars if we see somebody out on the street.”
Girl Strong is student run, but they still have teacher sponsors to be the club that they are. One of those sponsors is Susie Adams.
“I like that they are thinking beyond just themselves, and they are thinking beyond just their school.” said Susie Adams. “They’re looking into their community, at the needs of women throughout their community. For example, this is the kit drive, we are going to focus on unhoused women to help benefit them.”
Girl Strong is dedicated to helping women in the community. They have done multiple events and fundraisers to help different groups of women.
“I think our main goal is to help at least one person,” said Ozanich. “My goal personally is always for somebody to feel empowered to keep going and help others.”
For more information about Girl Strong or the Kit Drive for Unhoused Women, contact Lacie Gerffin.