On March 1, Elizabethtown College started celebrations in honor of Women’s History Month. Events throughout the month will recognize the achievements of women, and it all started with International Women’s Day.

International Women’s Day is held every year on March 8, but since most students were off campus for spring break, Etown moved the celebration up one week to ensure the special day was honored.

Students, faculty and staff gathered for the many activities that were being held to show their support. People could make cards for inspirational women in their life in the Bowers Center for Sports, Fitness and Well-being. On the second floor of the BSC, participants could sign a pledge to embrace equity and support women, as well as take photos and enter various basket raffles. Later in the day, the Bowers Center held a Zumba Toning and Pound class to celebrate the strength of women.

One of the other activities during the College’s International Women’s Day celebration was a service project hosted by the #EtownKindnessProject, a student club that aims to spread positivity and kindness across campus. This was a drop-in project in the BSC Tower Room to create reusable sanitary products known as LuoPads. Over 700 pads were created, and these will be donated through the humanitarian organization Unto.

The president and founder of the #EtownKindessProject Rose Lasso was thrilled to help with the College’s celebration in this way and give back to the community.

“Everybody needs a little support now and then, no matter what gender really,” Lasso said.

The #EtownKindnessProject is Lasso’s passion, so seeing it get to the point of hosting a successful service project was really exciting and meaningful for her.

“It [#EtownKindessProject] really helped me grow as a person and helped me find my place on campus,” Lasso said. “My first semester was really hard, so I decided one night to start making posters, just for my own sake. And then I was like, ‘Oh, let me start an Instagram page.’ Now, we have 30 members. It’s turned into something I never imagined, but I’m so happy it did.”

Other events throughout the month will showcase successful women in their achievements. One of these events was the networking and panel event hosted by Women in Business and Women in STEM on March 15.

“This is our second year doing the panel,” Women in Business President Madison Findley said. “Essentially, the panel is just to celebrate Women’s History Month, but also just to bring together members and alumni.”

The featured panelists included adjunct marketing professor Kathy Calnon Schwab, PwC consulting manager Brianna Carden, CEO for the Community Action Partnership of Lancaster County Vanessa Philbert, adjunct psychology faculty member Sharmin Maswood, chemical engineer Colleen Fabriziani and scientist Chelsea Allen.

“We wanted panelists who could give us different viewpoints on the world and their experiences,” Women in STEM President Brinley Beveridge said. “We are hoping that our panelists can inspire our attendees as well as answer any questions they may have about their future.”

Women in Business and Women in STEM are both student clubs focused on supporting women who want to go into more male-dominated spaces. With this shared goal, the partnership between these two groups is a perfect addition to the Women’s History Month event lineup.

“Through the years, women have overcome different injustices, prejudices and stereotypes,” Beveridge said on the importance of women’s empowerment. “It is important to remember the hardships we worked through and to celebrate our success as a gender. I also feel that often women see other women as competition. [With these events], women can come together and see what they can accomplish together instead of opposing each other. As a gender, we are so strong in many ways and it’s important to remember that.”

An ongoing project for the month of March is the menstrual hygiene product drive sponsored by the Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE). CCCE partnered with It’s On Us, Young Democratic Socialist Association and Student Senate to collect donated menstrual products to benefit the Blue Jay Pantry.

“The menstrual product drive has been an idea that multiple clubs as well as the CCCE Office has had in mind for over a year now, so I am glad we are able to carry it out,” sophomore Ariea O’Krepka said. “I am the coordinator for the Blue Jay Food Pantry, so when I noticed that some had suggested we provide certain hygiene products I knew this was something I should help with. No one on our campus should have to wonder where they are going to get menstrual hygiene products from.”

Junior Elsa Woodarek also works for the CCCE office and she emphasized how this product drive can help students who may experience period poverty by offsetting the cost of the “pink tax,” a phenomenon where products marketed towards women cost more than those marketed towards men.

Donation bins are located around campus, and the CCCE office even has an Amazon wishlist for people who would like to donate that way. More information about the Blue Jay Pantry can be found at www.etown.edu/centers/community-civic/.

Women’s History Month events will continue throughout the month of March, but supporting women is an ongoing mission. As Woodarek said, “Honor and celebrate the women in your life, not just in March but every day!”

For a complete list of Etown’s Women’s History Month events, please visit news.etown.edu/index.php/2023/02/23/elizabethtown-college-celebrates-womens-history-month-and-international-womens-day/.