By Taylor Conley
Have you noticed the donation boxes put up on campus recently? For the entire month of February, the GirlUp club sponsored a donation box located on campus collecting everyday items and necessities for foster youth.
GirlUp, otherwise known as Herstory, started out as a club with a focus of “her story,” or telling history from the perspective of a woman, which is not traditionally taught in history class. While the club still does that now, it has become more activism and community service-oriented over the years. Notable activities include sewing reusable feminine hygiene pads for people in third world countries, mental health discussions, and alumni panels.
During alumni panels, former members of GirlUp gave advice on college and spoke on their experiences in the college transition process. GirlUp also once held an educational screening of the film, The Color Purple, with a discussion afterwards, which was one of the club’s first official events.
With a leadership of all seniors, the club is run by president Clara Moffitt, vice president Kylie Klassen, secretary Sama Allam, and treasurer Brooke Kirk. After joining the club during her sophomore year and becoming treasurer, Brooke notes that, “I think Herstory has given me a unique opportunity to make an impact on campus and destigmatize female empowerment. It’s given me a really great opportunity of people, and women especially, who I can relate to.”
Throughout February, the Helen’s Hope Chest Drive has gained a ton of support from the TPA community. According to Brooke, “Myself and Clara were trying to figure out an organization that would benefit a lot of different kinds of people. Our club has a focus on women empowerment and gender equality, so by empowering foster kids, we can achieve that. We’re really proud of our TPA community for coming together to do this.”
The club president, Clara Moffitt came up with the idea of Helen’s Hope Chest from a past volunteer service trip she did with TPA. Helen’s Hope Chest provides items like clothing, toiletries, menstrual products, books, birthday gifts, and many more to foster youth, who would otherwise have a difficult time obtaining these items.
Member and sophomore Theresa O’Connor joined GirlUp at the beginning of ninth grade with intentions of improving her community. She really wanted to help women in third world countries with less resources and generally heard great things about the club. She states that, “It is something I look forward to every Friday. The community is just so welcoming and I really just enjoy spending my lunch talking about important issues and topics and doing activities. I find it to be really inspiring and motivating and I’m glad to have joined [the club].”
Obviously, GirlUp is making change and breaking barriers on the TPA campus. Be sure to keep an eye out for future GirlUp events! If you are interested in getting involved, GirlUp is a great community that is very welcoming of new members, so feel free to reach out to club sponsor Dr. Salcido or any of the club officers!