Lysne Tait-Co-Founder of Helping Women Period
In February of 2015 Lysne Tait and Amy Stephenson came up with an idea of Helping Women Period. Their idea derived from an article they came across on social media. The article they saw spoke about the ongoing expense that women incur during “that time of the month”. The fact that feminine products are taxable can be overwhelming especially for homeless women. In March of 2015 Lysne and Amy came up with an idea of inviting thirty friends for breakfast and asking them to donate a monetary gift to help less fortunate women. They were elated when they found out that their idea of wanting to give back touched one hundred people internationally.
Lysne and Amy raised four thousand dollars at the first Helping Women Period Breakfast. After raising that amount of money not only did they need to purchase feminine products they needed a supplier. Luckily Kirk Kurtiss from Michigan Co Janitorial wanted to help out. He set them up with a feasible deal for the number of feminine products they needed to purchase. Helping Women Period donated all the proceeds to Haven House Shelter in East Lansing. With the quick lucrative progression of Helping Women Period Co Directors felt that it was imperative to make sure all legal aspects were handled properly. Luckily Amy is a marketing director at Willingham and Cote Law Firm and her colleagues were able to help with the logistics.
Within the first year of forming Helping Women Period fourteen charity partners joined them and help to raise eleven thousand dollars. By the second year they raised thirty-three thousand dollars and expanded by partnering with sixty charity members. This year Helping Women Period has ninety-one charity partners and they’ve raised fifty-five thousand dollars, with five thousand from The Zonta Club of Lansing and ten thousand from the City of Lansing. All money raised this year came from personal donations. Helping Women Period has raised over one-hundred thousand dollars within three years. With the fourth anniversary of the Helping Women Period Breakfast it’s safe to say that Helping Women Period is bringing menstrual inequity to a halt. To learn more about Helping Women Period or to make a contribution please visit www.helpingwomenperiod.org.
