Bra drive teaches lessons to Beechcroft students
Standing in the back of the sanctuary at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Alese Mcnair grabbed the pink measuring tape that she had draped over her shoulders and stretched it around the torso of the woman standing in front of her.
“We’re just gonna figure out your size,” the 17year-old told Patience Dohnwana with a smile. “We’ve got you.”
And after the measuring was finished, Mcnair and Saraia Fisher – both seniors at Beechcroft High School, which sits just across the street from the
United Methodist Church at 6176 Sharon Woods Blvd. – walked Dohnwana through the space that had been transformed into a pop-up boutique of sorts and helped her sort through some of the plastic bins that held more than 400 bras.
Dohnwana, a 52-year-old who has been visiting the Good Shepherd Free Store regularly for more years than she could recall, said the special treatment she received Friday helped meet her needs,
made her feel good, and made her proud of the work being done by these high school seniors.
“What the kids did? They are great!” said Dohnwana, a native of Cameroon in West Africa who now lives not far from this church in the heart of the multi-cultural Northland neighborhood. “This was nice.”
But it wasn’t Dohnwana’s accolades that made the students happy. What pleased them most was that Dohnwana and the other women left with a little boost of self-confidence and the added health benefits that a properly-fitting bra provide.
Volunteering gives Beechcroft students deeper understanding of those in need
Six Beechcroft High seniors – all part of the school’s student council – who have been volunteering at the Free Store since September came up with and led the project to collect bras and underwear for the women who visit there. In all, students collected 428 bras and 331 pair of underwear for the church and to help students in their own school.
The lack of undergarments was something, quite frankly, that these teenagers hadn’t given much thought to until they realized from volunteering here that there are so many women for whom they are a luxury.
“It’s been eye-opening, honestly,” Mcnair said. “When they can’t even afford to buy what they need for their families, new bras and underwear are way down on the list. It feels so good to be able to help.”
Shunda Wright is the career and community resource coordinator at Beechcroft, and, along with math teacher Christine Harris, co-advises the senior class.
Every Columbus City Schools student has a graduation requirement to meet for community service/internship/work hours, and the work helping to sort clothes, toiletries and household goods and in assisting shoppers at the Free Store helps these Beechcroft students fulfill that.
But Wright said this particular “Service Above Self” collection project by this group wasn’t really about checking off a box.
While volunteering, the students asked the church what needs go largely unmet by the Free Store, and bras and underwear were the answer, Wright said.
“So the students went to work,” she said. They set up a collection box at the school in November and reached out to an international organization called I Support The Girls for help. “We don’t just give the students a valuable education but we teach them to live a life in service to others. Here, they’re helping their very own neighborhood and community. That matters.”
Kathy Jackson is a mother of four who has run I Support The Girls Columbus chapter since 2018.
When Beechcroft reached out to her about their drive, she was excited to help. Jackson not only provided hundreds of bras (many donated to her organization by Soma and La Senza locally and corporately), but on Friday she also brought new tubes of mascara and sanitized wipes for the store’s clients, too.
Representatives from the Ohio State University’s Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital were also on hand with gift bags for the Free Store clients that included home COVID tests, masks, a cup, lip gloss and cuticle set and information on no-cost mammograms. They also taught methods for breast self-examinations, something Dohnwana said she didn’t know how to do.
She took a waterproof card to hang in her shower to remind her how to do it properly.
I Support the Girls - Columbus serves women in many places, such as shelters, safehouses, prison re-entry programs and schools, with its bras and feminine hygiene products. Last year, the organization donated over 227,000 items to those in need.
Dignity, respect are lessons learned through volunteering
Jackson taught the Beechcroft volunteers how to properly measure for a bra size, and she was on hand to help Friday morning when nearly a dozen women from the neighborhood came through for their regular shopping trip.
“We didn’t just go in and drop bras and underpants. The measuring, the care, it all adds a layer of dignity and respect. We make it a shopping experience instead of a digging-through-abargain-bin experience,” she said. “These folks who come in and get a bra, they feel the love. They feel that they are in a community where people care. Those kids, I hope, will realize it’s a legacy they are leaving to the area and how meaningful it was.”
The Church of the Good Shepherd Free store opened in 2013, and serves primarily the immigrant population of the Northland neighborhood, said the Rev. Jeremy Moyers. The store at the United Methodist church is open for a few hours on the third Friday and Saturday of each month, and more than 700 families are currently registered to be able to get clothes, toys, linens, household goods and toiletries there.
Moyers said the church is perfectly situated in the middle of the Northland neighborhood to be able to help many, and that working with the Beechcroft students seemed a natural fit. “It’s like one neighbor loaning a cup of sugar to another neighbor so that she can bake a pie for yet another neighbor. Everyone benefits.”
Fisher, Mcnair and their classmates – JV Velasquez, Gabriela Fontanez, Kazia Rhoden and Amir Hutchins – each said they’ve learned something meaningful from this project that will continue to help women meet a most basic need.
“To think there might be someone who can’t even have a bra? That shouldn’t happen,” Fisher, 17, said as she waited to measure another woman on Friday. “This has been an awesome opportunity to help.”
For more information on the Church of the Good Shepherd Free Store, visit www.goodshepherdum.org and I Support The Girls - Columbus can be found on Facebook.
This story is part of the Dispatch’s Mobile Newsroom initiative, which is currently focused on Northland and operating out of the Karl Road branch library. hzachariah@dispatch.com @hollyzachariah