United Way packs bags
Courtney Schreiner was happily surprised by the response to the first-ever Women Leadership Council supply drive.
Schreiner, volunteer coordinator for the Butler County branch of the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania, said the organization received 1,200 items for the drive in a month’s time, including shampoo, conditioner, makeup bags, body wash, nail kits, razors, tampons and magazines.
The items were specifically requested by the Victim Outreach Intervention Center of Butler County and Helping All Victims In Need, or HAVIN, of Armstrong County, and were packed up Friday by volunteers to get them to the shelters as quickly as possible.
“This is really, since I have been here, our first drive focused for women’s shelters,” Schreiner said. “I think it has been really successful for a first-time event.”
According to Sherrie Dunlap, corporate engagement manager for the United Way, every United Way branch in the region held the drive during April, and prepared the supplies Friday for women’s shelters local to their areas.
Dunlap said women’s hygiene products are always needed at women’s shelters, and collection drives were especially critical throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
“We had our agency partners give us a list of what they most needed,” Dunlap said. “It was a whole regional effort to collect things for different shelters.”
Dunlap also said the Women’s Leadership Council helped collect items in bulk for the drive, to make sure the shelters got the supplies they needed.
She said getting these items to people who may otherwise go without them was an important initiative to the United Way.
“It’s to bring comfort and dignity to (women) who need help at this challenging time,” Dunlap said.
