A recent partnership with the RV Women’s Alliance (RVWA) connected RV PRO with Rachael Heger, national director of affiliate outreach for I Support The Girls (ISTG) — a global nonprofit that turned a few bra donations into 33 million essential items for women and folx experiencing homelessness, impoverishment or distress. Founded in 2015 by Dana Marlowe, the organization’s website says, “Bras and hygiene products are the most requested but least donated items.” ISTG is working to change that while making a serious topic accessible and friendly to all.
RVWA’s drive for ISTG aims to collect 80,000 hygiene products — equivalent to a lifetime use for five women. The collection goes through March 1, 2025.
Read below to learn more from Heger.
What is important to understand about ISTG’s overall mission?
I think it’s crucial for everyone to understand that we’re all here because of a missed period. We all know and love someone with a uterus. This is a human issue, not just a women’s issue. And if you’ve had a period, and I don’t care what your financial situation is, you’ve probably been stuck without access to a pad or tampon in a time of need, and it’s terrible. We get products out to populations that use bras and menstrual products at no cost to them.
We are also working to destigmatize this issue as much as possible for everybody — whether you’re a dad and never thought about this before, or maybe you haven’t had a period in 30 years and don’t realize how things have changed. Do you know how much a box of tampons is now?
A big thing I’ve personally been doing around my area is educating teachers on menstrual equality and period poverty, and what that might mean to their students. We talk a lot about the “tampon tax,” which Indiana still has. That’s an additional tax on feminine hygiene products — unlike the tax exemption granted to other products considered basic necessities. Head & Shoulders shampoo doesn’t have this tax in Indiana and is considered “medicinal.”
Another big space we’re in is the intersection of mental health and menstrual health, which is something that needs to be talked about. Some of that has turned into creating a checklist of what you should talk to your doctor about — we do that for many folks who don’t have a good relationship with their physician, or maybe don’t have a physician at all yet.
I would be remiss if I didn’t say that every nonprofit wants to be put out of business, right? I want these problems to be eradicated.
How does ISTG find and connect with communities who are “unmet and unseen”?
We’ve been so fortunate to take a big tent approach to who we’ve been able to help. We started out helping homeless shelters and domestic violence organizations, but since then, we’ve been able to expand and reach youth groups, foster care agencies, the LGBTQ+ community, Title 1 schools, food pantries, street outreach communities, veteran groups and so on. I’m very proud of the breadth of organizations we’ve been able to help since we started.
We have people on the ground in a lot of spots, so they’re able to keep their ears open. Many of our affiliates have been in their communities for so long that they are kind of subject matter experts. They’re researching organizations and serving as a point person to collect and distribute products. Sometimes folks in town will be like, “Hey, I’m a nurse, and we’re setting up a Red Cross aid station at this church. Can I support ISTG?” And the answer is likely yes.
Most importantly, it’s not only about reaching these communities, but understanding them and learning what they need. I’m really proud of how we’ve been able to respond to different communities, organizations and places. Even shelters of the same kind will require or request different things depending on where they’re located. It’s important to us to be culturally sensitive and responsive.
Where does ISTG currently have a presence?
We have everybody from ISTG Detroit to ISTG in Naples, Florida, to ISTG Germany and other countries, and so on. If you look at our map, it might look a little funny — like why don’t we have ISTG in Boise, Idaho, or in Miami? The answer is I would love to, but it’s a matter of making sure we have the right folks on the ground to do the job.
We have four affiliates in Florida. Once we made sure they were all OK with the latest hurricanes, we said, “As long as we know you’re safe and dry, tell us when you’re available to receive packages or if you know organizations able to receive products.” Periods don’t stop for hurricanes, but the last thing you’re thinking about when evacuating is your period being due in two days.
How did the organization get in touch with RVWA?
From Susan Carpenter, RVWA president: “Our events chair, Kate Taylor, was getting an oil change and saw an ad on the TV about the organization. We are always looking for ways to give back, so she brought it up at our next committee meeting. We loved the idea, so we got our community service task force chair, Denyse Pontius, involved and it evolved from there.”
How can those in the RV industry support ISTG and its ongoing mission?
We really can only expand with greater funding — so that’s huge — but we also want to reach more folks to be able to dial in and be responsive to more areas in need.
Carpenter: There are several ways you can support the mission of collecting 80,000 products. You can go to our Amazon gift registry to purchase products, bring store-bought products at any drop-off location or grab a collection box to put in your place of business to start a collection site yourself. All details can be found at rvwa.org/get-involved/community-service-opportunities.
Anything else to note about ISTG?
We’re so grateful for this opportunity and the RVWA partnership, and are looking forward to seeing what comes in. They’re doing such a massive product donation drive for us, which is crucial. All those items are just going back out to some of the 5,000 organizations we work with. If there’s anything that we can do for individual companies, or even groups outside of the RV world, we’re very easy to find and get in touch with. We love connecting with folks.
