KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Waldo-based Sierra Winter Jewelry and the Kansas City chapter of I Support the Girls are hosting a week-long donation drive that ends on Saturday.
They are asking for donations of new or gently used bras, women's hygiene products and new underwear to be given to women and girls in need in the greater Kansas City region.
"We've had people coming in every day with bags of bras. People just don't realize what they have and what they don't wear," Sierra Otto, owner of Sierra Winter Jewelry, said. "We're very, very happy with what people have brought in,"
"We believe in giving the gift of dignity through basic needs," I Support the Girls Kansas City affiliate director Lindsay Weiss said. "We believe that bras, underwear, menstrual hygiene products are a basic need, and most places do not have a budget for any of these items and we feel like they should be included with toilet paper soap, that kind of thing they're just very basic needs."
I Support the Girls works with more than 70 local organizations ranging from schools to domestic violence shelters, to homeless shelters in order to deliver these types of donations. So far, the response at the jewelry store at 70th and Oak has been strong.
"We probably have thousands of dollars worth of bra's," Otto said. "They're not cheap, a bra can be, I don't know, $19 up to $75 or $100."
"It's such a barrier because a lot of these women a lot of single moms, they don't have the option to buy these products, and some of our self-care items that they deserve and some of them are just basic needs that they need and it's a struggle," Weiss said.
Donations will be collected until Saturday, with the jewelry store's hours on Friday opening from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and then on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
