by: Adison Poole
Last year GS staff members installed feminine product dispensers in each of the women’s restrooms throughout the high school. This year, the dispensers are filled and now in use for the first time.
While members of GS staff were responsible for installing the period product dispensers in each of the women’s restrooms, GS graduate Emily Campbell was who pushed for them to be installed in the first place.
A product dispenser found in the second floor’s women’s restroom. Photo by: Adison Poole
“I wanted to install the machines because I believe that it’s important we have hard conversations especially ones that people are afraid to have,” Campbell said. “So, my goal was to help people who don’t have access to period products.”
Campbell, who is now a student at PennWest Edinboro, was a girl scout for 13 years before she graduated high school. Being a Girl Scout is what gave her the idea to install the machines throughout the school. When a Girl Scout is either in high school, is a Girl Scout Senior Ambassador or has completed at least two Senior or Ambassador journeys, she is eligible to go for a Girl Scout Gold Award.
“It was my choice to go for my Gold Award and decided to because community service was a value that was instilled in me at a very young age,” she said. “I decided to do the period products specifically because I found it to be a problem that no one wanted to talk about.”
Gold Awards are presented to Girl Scouts who take on the challenge of finding a problem in their community and working to fix or change it to create a better environment and lasting effect for their community as a whole. For Campbell, this problem was the lack of feminine products in GS bathrooms, so she set out to change that.
Campbell couldn’t just get going right away, though, she first needed the school’s approval before she could start having the dispensers installed throughout the school. Projects such as hers often need to seek school board attention or receive school board approval as well as approval from the school’s superintendent and staff. However, Campbell never went through a formal board meeting to get approval for her Gold Award project, instead she got the okay from the school’s principal and superintendent almost immediately and was allowed to begin working on her project.
“She actually did do a presentation with the board, but it was more just to inform them of what’s going on,” Superintendent Dr. Ken Bissell explained. “It’s always good to present to the Board just so they’re aware of what’s going on.”
Campbell’s proposal to the school to install the machines went so well that she was also given permission to install the product dispensers throughout the middle school.
While this is the first-time products are available in the bathrooms, these products are not something new to GS. Products have always been available to students, just not directly in the bathrooms; instead students had to ask for products from either the Nurse or health teacher Mrs. Alyssa Lukatch. Now students have access to products throughout the day and students won’t have to ask for them from their teachers, instead they can use as needed.
“I think it will be good for the students because they’re available in every bathroom now,” Mrs. Lukatch explained. “Now that the school is providing them, I will probably do away with having my own in the locker room.”
The idea behind the dispensers is that students can feel more comfortable getting the products when they need them. Instead of going up to the Nurse or down to the locker room, students will have full access to the products at any time of the day.
“Well, some girls don’t want to go to the nurse for that,” High School Co-Principal Mr. Adam Jones said. “I have a daughter, so I understand.”
Campbell also installed the dispensers with the thought in mind that they could help students who don’t have access to period products anywhere else.
“With our school having the poverty rate it does, so many families have to decide between things like food and period products,” Campbell said. “I wanted to make sure no student would miss school over such a solvable problem.”
Having the dispensers has created new funding for products as well so teachers such as Mrs. Lukatch won’t have to feel the need to purchase products anymore. Instead, the school will be responsible for supplying and funding the products.
“In the long run it will save me some money,” Lukatch explained. “I was buying the products, so I just tried to buy what was cheapest.”
This doesn’t mean products won’t still be available in the locker rooms, though. Dispensers were installed in not only all of the women’s restrooms throughout the school but also the girls’ locker room bathroom as well. So instead of students asking for one they can take one from the dispenser.
“It’s convenient to still have products down there since Mrs. Lukatch was already providing them,” junior Theresa Schuetz said.
When getting the dispensers initially installed, Campbell worked on a grant to get the project off the ground. She raised the rest of the money to purchase products that would fill up the machines. Now that they’ve been installed, and the first set of products have been stocked, the school will now be responsible for funding to fill the dispensers.
“Emily’s part of the fundraising paid for most of the product,” Mr. Jones explained. “So going forward I’m sure the district will pick up that part of the budget.”
Since products will be available to both high school and middle school students, there will be both tampons and pads in the dispensers so students will have the choice to take whichever they may need. Campbell kept in mind that younger students may not be comfortable using certain products, so she made sure to supply both to offer students a choice.
“I like that they’re giving us an option,” Schuetz said. “I think girls will be more comfortable picking what they prefer.”
The dispensers are currently stocked with products and will continue to be stocked as long as the school has the funding for them and as long as there are no issues in the bathroom with the products.
“As long as the products are used responsibly,” Co-Principal Mr. David Zilli said. “And as long as we have product, yes it will be stocked.”
Campbell presented the idea of installing product dispensers with the hope that they would stay stocked and be available throughout the day. She also hoped it would be beneficial to students who may not have access to products anywhere else and create a long-lasting effect.
“One of the biggest pillars of the Gold Award is sustainability,” Campbell said. “I tried to fulfill this requirement with two different approaches, one being of course, that the machines are long lasting and that the school will continue filling them long after my graduation.”
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