Fewer impoverished Dane County residents will have to choose between toiletries and food thanks to a new Personal Care Items Drive.
Eileen Newman promoted the drive during a press conference Tuesday at the Madison Concourse Hotel, 1 W. Dayton St.
The drive began Tuesday and will continue until Nov. 13 throughout Madison, Middleton and Monona. The drive, which Newman initiated only two months ago, encourages community donations of hygienic products to various drop-off locations throughout the city to benefit local food pantries.
According to Newman, the support has been tremendous throughout the community. 'Support sprung up all over the place from businesses, community organizations, civic groups; all over people wanted to join the drive and now, less than two months later, we have 33 public drop-off points that will receive the donations,' Newman said.
'A primary goal of the drive is to fill the food pantries with as much toilet paper, toothbrushes, toothpaste, sanitary napkins, shampoo, soap, diapers, etc. as humanly possible,' Newman said. 'The more generous the community is, the fewer people, the fewer neighbors, that will have to be without these necessary and important items,' she added.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz praised Newman as 'a great example of how one person can make a difference.' Cieslewicz helped promote the drive as well by stopping by Walgreens on his way to the conference to pick up a few items for donation.
Cieslewicz addressed the importance of poverty awareness stating, 'I hope this [program] leads to a greater awareness that the social safety net has too many holes in it and that the government has a responsibility to respond to that.'
Ald. Austin King, District 8, spoke at the conference, commenting on the need for community support. King said the drive's goals are to 'Get some real products to some real people that need them who are living on our blocks and to raise awareness about the many things we can do and must continue to do at a local, state, and federal level to eliminate poverty forever; that has to be the goal of my generation.'
'We will continue'continue to do something about this until every single person in our community has all of their basic needs met and we will no longer need to have drives like this,' Newman said.
Care items can be dropped off at the Morgridge Center on the first floor of the Red Gym.
