Elizabeth Lanigan ’16 collected 55 boxes of pads and tampons and $49 in monetary donations for her Padding the Cycle community service project, which worked with the Carlisle C.A.R.E.S. Homeless Shelter to provide homeless women with feminine hygiene products. Lanigan collected donations for the project from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3 in the HUB basement, but said that she will still accept donations through the end of the semester.

Lanigan said that those who wish to donate to the project could leave donations in a box in the upper level of the HUB in-between the dining hall and the social hall. The monetary donations she collected will be used to purchase more hygiene products, she said.

Lanigan’s Padding the Cycle initiative was her capstone project for Montgomery Service Leaders (MSL).  Lanigan has been a part of the MSL program since her first year, and has since been working with the Carlisle C.A.R.E.S. Homeless Shelter. The MSL program is a part of the Center for Service, Spirituality and Social Justice, according to the Dickinson website.

The students who are in the third year of their time with MSL begin work on a Capstone project with their non-profit. The project is funded by a grant from the MSL program.

“For the capstone, we have to do a project that would have a long term impact for the organization we work for, so I really wanted to do something that would make people donate pads and tampons more often basically because it’s not something you really think about,” Lanigan said.

Lanigan also had an educational component to her project.

“We showed this documentary called ‘On The Edge,’ which profiled seven women and their experience with homelessness,” Lanigan explained. “Then we had a discussion afterward about how homelessness isn’t just an individual problem, it’s also a person’s gender and race that effects how they experience homelessness.”

10 people attended the event that was held at the Social Justice House.

Lanigan, an English and Women’s and Gender Studies double-major, said she is unsure what she will do after she graduates this spring but said that “it’s pretty up in the air right now but I think anything with service and volunteering.”

“Even though I won’t be in the MSL program technically next semester I’m still going to continue volunteering at the shelter, and I know I’m always going to be involved in service definitely for the rest of my life,” Lanigan said. “And if I can do service that benefits women specifically or just raise awareness to woman’s and gender issues, that would be something that I would be really interested in.”

To find out more about the Padding the Cycle initiative or to make a monetary donation to her efforts, contact Lanigan at [email protected]. For more information on MSL, search for “Montgomery Service Leaders” on Dickinson’s website.