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Nearly 1,000 products donated through Tampon Tuesday

Second annual event sees more than $1,100 in donations
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United Way North East Ontario and the Sudbury and District Labour Council hosted the second annual Tampon Tuesday event on March 6. (L to R) Sudbury NDP candidate Jamie West, Carolyn Szilva, Katelyn Corbiere, both from Women of Steel, Nicole Ayotte, Director of Labour Community Services, United Way Centraide North East Ontario. (Matt Durnan/Sudbury.com)

United Way North East Ontario and the Sudbury and District Labour Council hosted the second annual Tampon Tuesday event on March 6 in conjunction with International Women's Week.

The event saw more than 80 people show up to Kuppajo Espresso Bar in downtown Sudbury, and more than $1,100 was raised to purchase and donate feminine hygiene products. The United Way was able to donate approximately 1,000 items to the Sudbury Food Bank and the YWCA.

Tampon Tuesday is a national campaign with a goal of bringing awareness to the issues facing women, especially those who may be living in poverty or homeless and need access to menstrual hygiene products.

"I've always donated food and clothing, as do many people in Sudbury, but I just hadn't thought of this, and most people haven't because it just doesn't come up," said Shirley Harasym, owner of Sunflower Boutique, and guest speaker at the Tampon Tuesday event.

"It's food and clothing and those basics that always come up, they're really important but so is this. It's not something that comes up once in a while, or once a year, it's every month."

Harasym started the Donating Dignity Campaign, a program where Sunflower Boutique on Notre Dame Avenue accepts personal care items for women, including menstrual products, which they donate to the Corner Clinic.

Other guest speakers at Tampon Tuesday included Nicole Ayotte, Director of Labour Community Services, United Way Centraide North East Ontario, Emma Lapierre, a shelter support worker at the YWCA Sudbury Genevra House, and Amanda Kingsley Malo, an elementary school teacher and social activist from Sudbury.


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