This Valley Woman Is Making 'Period Packs' For Students Who Can't Afford Pads, Tampons At School

Published: Tuesday, March 6, 2018 - 3:32pm
Updated: Tuesday, March 6, 2018 - 4:31pm
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(Photo by Shaunte Glover)
Demetra Presley, founder of Go With The Flow.

And now, we turn to a story about someone who saw a problem — and came up with a way to address it.

Demetra Presley was in bed one night last year, and she couldn’t sleep. So, she was scrolling through Facebook.

"One of the things I happened to come across was a video about a teacher who was making these period packs for her students. And in the video, she talked about how she takes all of her old Ipsy bags, and she puts pads and tampons in them, and she keeps them in her classroom to give to her students when they need them, because her students didn't readily have available to them menstrual hygiene supplies while they were at school," Presley said.

She was shocked, so she asked her friends who have middle school-aged daughters about it, and she called some local school districts to ask about it. They all pretty much said the same thing: schools have a hard time supplying feminine hygiene products for their students, and many families simply can’t afford them.

So she decided to do something about it.

Since then, Presley’s project, which she named Go With the Flow, has taken off. She was recently profiled in The Arizona Republic, and she is now partnering with three different school districts around the state to supply them with her “period packs.”

Presley is not a teacher or a mother of a daughter this age. She’s actually a probation officer in her daily life, and she just wanted to help.

The Show's Lauren Gilger sat down with her recently to talk more about it, and how big she wants to grow this project in the future.

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