By: Ginnie Lo
The club, I Am That Girl, hosted a charity drive called “Helpful Handbags” as a way to give back to the community, Club Secretary Pranavi Manchikanti said. The club collected bags until Dec. and filled them with necessities to donate to the Sacred Heart Community Service in time for the holidays, Manchikanti continued.
The officers of I Am That Girl collected lightly used or brand new purses and packaged them with feminine hygiene products, non-perishable snacks, chapsticks, socks, and other necessities, Manchikanti said. These items went to women in shelters that were either homeless or victims of domestic abuse, she added.
“We picked feminine hygiene products [to donate] mostly because of the Pink Tax,” Manchikanti stated. “On average, feminine hygiene products are 13% more expensive than men’s. Homeless shelters and shelters for women especially don’t have that many funds, and the discrepancy between the [male and female] products makes it harder.”
She came up with the idea of collecting handbags to give to women from a tweet, Manchikanti said. The purpose was for people to give out their old bags filled with necessities to homeless women on the streets whenever they saw them while driving, she continued.
“I thought that it would be super cool to expand that idea and make it like a charity drive so that we could donate it to more women in need,” Manchikanti said. “We [the officers] thought that December would be the perfect time to do it because it’s the holiday time. The bags would be like a sort of gift for the women.”
I Am That Girl had the idea of “Helpful Handbags” since last year, Treasurer Merilyn Kuo stated. It took two months for them to find a shelter to donate to and finalize the drive, she continued.
“We knew as a club that we wanted to do some community service type of thing and give back to the community centered around women empowerment,” Kuo said. “We decided to collect purses, handbags, and tote bags because they’re expensive, and they’re not easy to come by either. It’s a great thing to put everything in that you need.”
The club shared the news with the other girl empowerment clubs such as GirlUp and She’s the First to help spread the message, Kuo said. From this, I Am That Girl was able to collect the items and monetary donations they needed to help pay for the products that were put into the bags, she added.
“Just by helping [these women] get more pads or tampons eases their life,” Kuo said. “They’re already having such a hard time because there are so many health issues that come when [hygiene products] are not sanitary.”