Alpha Sigma Tau sisters Ali Goodson and Hattie Mahoney hosted a Her Drive to collect feminie care and hygiene products for women in need. 

Her Drive is a nonprofit organization aiming to close the gap to limited access to feminie care products. 

The drive took place from the 15th to the 18th from 11-1p.m. outside of the student center and the donations were given to the women of Harbor House, Haven House and the Women’s Shelter of Conway. 

The two sisters, who are roommates on campus, discovered the Her Drive through a video on Tik Tok. 

Mahoney said, “Ali saw a video on TikTok of the founders of the Her Drive organization based out of Chicago talking about the opportunity to host your own drive. After that, we applied to host our own drive and a few weeks later we were accepted.” 

The women were able to utilize the resources of their sorority to host the drive in an organized way that brought many people together. 

Social media played an important role in this drive, as it is what led the women to hosting it. 

Also serving as a communication tool, social media allowed members to share flyers for the drive with their followers which garnered attention and brought in donations. 

Goodson said, “My roommate and I prepared by meeting with the Her Drive team for weeks, developing flyers and gathering materials for the drive, as well as contacting the school to host it and finding donation sites.” 

After four days of the drive, 2550 total items were donated, which Mahoney said was better than expected. 

Among these items were new or gently used bras, vanity products, menstrual and general hygiene products. 

March is Women’s Empowerment Month and the ladies agreed that it was the perfect timing for the drive to be held, as it allowed women and men to help other women have access to important items. 

Amidst the pandemic, there were still restrictions in place for the drive. 

Goodson said, “We had to make sure we were being covid conscious. I tried to make it was contactless as possible for people, we followed guidelines to make it easy for donations and keep everyone safe.”

Oftentimes, sororities and fraternities will offer service hours to their members for donating to various drives and fundraisers hosted on campus. 

“We were able to offer service hours for donations for our sorority, Alpha Sigma Tau. All of the other sororities and fraternities had the opportunity to offer service hours for their members for donating as well. We also offered service hours for volunteering to help us with the drive and logging donation items,” Mahoney said. 

The drive was considered to be a huge success by the leaders and they plan to host it again around the same time next year.

Mahoney said, “We are so thankful that the UCA community was so supportive of us doing this. I think we were able to make a big difference.”