Booker High School student breaks stigma and barriers with Booker Basics

When she became class president during her freshman year at Booker High School, Ava Donoghue had the idea for Booker Basics already in mind. 

She says in middle school, many friends found themselves in the embarrassing situation of having to walk across campus after getting their periods to obtain supplies, while she would carry extras for her friends. 

She saw a need that, across the country, she says isn't being met. 

“It's just a natural process that happens to most women, and not having the products that they need when that time does come, it’s unfortunate, because we always have toilet paper, and we always have a baby changing station, most of the time, and where are the period products?” she said. 

Her initiative, Booker Basics, which she is now continuing as sophomore class president, offers free pads and tampons in all the bathrooms at Booker High School.

Courtesy image

When the program was launched, it had QR codes for surveys, which she says nearly all female class members participated in, providing high ratings.

"It helps them academically, socially," she said. "The environment is honestly better when you use the bathroom. It's that stigma, that barrier, it just completely breaks down."

The work also involved reaching out to different Florida organizations. 

The person who responded was ultimately Sarah Parker, the executive director and president of Voices of Florida Fund, an organization defending reproductive freedoms. 

“Within days, the posts on Instagram blew up, and everybody was just like, ‘This is so cool. This is amazing,'” Donoghue said. 

She says support has since slowed but remained stable. 

The initiative has also received a hefty amount of support from Rose Ladd, a library and media aide at the school who has helped to promote it in the community. 

Finally, it underwent a recent upgrade, thanks to a partnership with Aunt Flow, a woman-owned small business, and a donation of $5,000 from Patty Smith and the Eluned and Edward Russell Charitable Foundation.

The original plastic dispensers had always jammed and been overfilled, she said, but recently new metal dispensers from Aunt Flow were installed, and a supply of its products offered. 

Currently, the large bathrooms in buildings 4 and 8 have dispensers holding 100 pads and 100 tampons, with smaller dispensers for other bathrooms that hold 50 pads and 50 tampons.

 “A lot of people thank me in the hallways," Donoghue said. "If they ever see me walking down, they're like, ‘I just used Booker Basics. It’s awesome to hear that people are actually using it respectfully.”

Donoghue hopes that in her junior year, she can expand the program's reach to more areas of the county. 

“I want girls from different schools to have that same access,” she said.