Professor Rachel Urbanowicz, Professor Jennifer Black and other professors of Misericordia’s College of Arts and Sciences have teamed up to raise over $100 in menstrual products for Ruth’s Place, a homeless shelter for women in Wilkes-Barrem by selling stickers.

The sticker drive, which took place in March, was a surprising success for Urbanowicz and the Misericordia community.

The drive offered small stickers that cost $1 to $2 each and easily fit on the back of a laptop or on the side of a water bottle. In lieu of the traditional t-shirt drive, Urbanowicz had printed iconic women’s rights archetypes, including the ever-famous Rosie the Riveter, an allegorical cultural icon of World War II, representing women who worked in factories and shipyards during the war.

“I am extremely pleased with how successful this drive was,” Urbanowicz said.

The project had two main objectives associated with moving its cause forward: raising money for Ruth’s Place and raising awareness.

Urbanowicz and her team did this by selling stickers and accepting donations in which 100% of the profits went towards purchasing menstrual products for homeless women. They also used boxes to collect donations, which were a success.

“I went down to Passan Hall where I had left a box and the box was full of supplies,” Urbanowicz said. “It blows my mind how kind and generous people can be.”

The inspiration for the drive came from a documentary and extensive research on period insecurity across the nation in which the women learned that supplies for women are still heavily taxed, although essential.

“What I’ve learned from doing research for the presentation that I did is that, just like there’s food insecurity in this country and even on this campus, there’s period insecurity,” Urbanowicz added. “There are women and girls who can’t afford supplies, so they miss school because, obviously, they don’t want to go out when they’re on their period, which is really sad and horrible.”

The issue is particularly dire in shelters like Ruth’s Place, which do not have funds to spare for essentials such as these.

“While only food and beds are required in shelters, these supplies are not,” Urbanowicz said. “And a lot of states still tax these products which make them hard to afford. I wanted to raise money to help combat that.”