Days for Girls works to eliminate the stigma and limitations associated with menstruation so that women and girls have improved health, education and livelihoods. To date, we have reached over 3.5 million women and girls with our life-changing menstrual health solutions.
Each standard Days for Girls washable kit includes: 2 waterproof shields, 8 liners, 2 panties, 1 carry pouch, a 100% cotton wash cloth, a small bar of soap, and an ovulation chart and directions, all packaged in a drawstring bag. Those are the things you can see. What you might not notice immediately is that those kits also contain: dignity, education, and independence. These kits and their accompanying education can lift entire communities out of poverty.
To complete menstrual health kits we fundraise to purchase supplies. You can send us monetary donations through: Grove City PA Team’s team fundraising page for Days for Girls International as well as sending needed items directly to us through our Grove City DfG Amazon wish list.
The other way to help us is to follow us on social media and share our posts: Days for Girls Grove City PA Team
If you are interested in donating your time you can volunteer with us. Please use this email to inquire about volunteer opportunities: grovecitypa@daysforgirls.org
A brief history of the Gove City team:
Ruth Magee (team lead) read an article about DfG in 2016 around the same time she was contemplating retirement. After retiring, she talked with others who were interested in DfG but getting it running took some time. In 2018 Cindy Buchanan (Fierst) was recently widowed and also looking for something meaningful to do in retirement joined with Ruth and they sewed in each other’s homes. Their components were shared with a team, whose leader Ruth talked to over a year before. Eventually, the Grove City team received a few orders through the main office of DfG International and connected with other teams needing components through the organization’s leadership chatroom.
In early 2019, at her grandson’s middle school basketball, Ruth and her daughter Carissa had a conversation in the bleachers that changed the dynamics of the small team. They were talking with her daughter’s friend who also had a son on the basketball team, when Carissa said, “Mom, tell Tracy what you and Cindy are doing” and Ruth explained about our little DfG team. Tracy’s daughter Susannah, who was a high school junior, said to her mother “Mom, we have to do this!”
Tracy was a co-chair of East Main’s Women’s Ministries, and invited Cindy and Ruth to present at their next meeting. On that night, our team became more than a team of 2. People from Women’s Ministry, and their friends, joined our team and it continued to grow. We began to meet in East Main’s Fellowship Hall once a month, and sewists took work home. We began to work with the PA Collection Point, which then was located at 3rd Presbyterian in Pittsburgh. When the pandemic hit in 2020, we pivoted to making masks and continued to sew DfG components. We had a drop box on Rurth’s porch, and homework came and went (sometimes sitting for 3 days to ensure no virus was passed along). Community members who received masks would sometimes offer to donate to the team and spread the word about what the Grove City team was doing for the community. Eventually the team connected with the Assistant Superintendent of Schools who wanted to get these sewn masks to teachers and students in the school district. He wanted to pay for the masks, but Ruth refused saying that instead she wanted to talk with the district about local period poverty and see what we could do about that together, once the pandemic was over. That conversation was held almost 2 years later and resulted in the Grove City team, with support from the Grove City Health Care Foundation, supplying disposables in all the GCASD girls’ restrooms grade 4-12, and additional products for girls who don’t have a reliable supply at home.
Community partnerships continued to expand after the pandemic, so did the team. As the team grew, they collaborated with the PA Collection Point even more. Eventually, the Grove City team outgrew their space at East Main and began looking for another space. Cindy had begun traveling on international mission trips, often including taking supplies for DfG Enterprises in her luggage. In 2022, she sold her house and began traveling full-time, necessitating a change in team leadership. Mary Wike and Tracy Jackson came on board as co-leaders to help with the current operation and to search for a new location for the team. Around the same time, the Pittsburgh Team and PA Collection Point were also looking for a new space.
The Pittsburgh Sewing team began in 2015 at Third Presbyterian Church. In 2018 the team expanded to include being the PA Collection Point. In December of 2022, the PA Collection Point moved to First United Methodist Church of Pittsburgh. While we were grateful for FUMC for the space, it was quickly clear it wouldn’t work long term for the PA Collection Point.
In late 2023, the Grove City Team noticed that another local non-profit was occupying an unused building on the George Junior Republic campus. Though the network of people involved with DfG and other nonprofits in the area, a connection was made so that Ruth, Tracy, and Mary could meet with the CEO of George Junior Republic, Nate Gressel, Board member Dick Stevenson, and several GJR staff members to tour available buildings on GJR’s campus. One building checked off every box on the Grove City DfG ‘must have’ list, as well as our wish list, and a few other things we hadn’t even thought of. GJR offered to go to their Boards for approval if we wanted to occupy that building, free of charge.
The day of that tour happened to be one day before the anniversary of when Mary’s son Sean had been killed in a tragic accident. Mary had, of course, been struggling with that anniversary. After that tour, the 3 team leaders went to the conference room at East Main, and then just looked at each other— and burst into grateful tears. Not only was that facility more than we had imagined, but it was also, to us, a sign that Sean was looking after us from beyond.
Our team has grown exponentially since then, both in volunteers and also in the reach of what we do. We doubled the output of DfG kits and expanded our menstrual cup, local kit, and disposables outreach. And we noticed that the building could help us expand even more….
In the summer of 2024, the Collection Point moved to Grove City and began sharing a building with the Grove City team. The Pittsburgh DfG sewing team remained at FUMC. Some collection point volunteers commuted to Grove City and were joined by members of the Grove City sewing team to form a new collection point team.
The combination of the PA Collection Point and Grove City team energized volunteers and we began working in creative collaboration to host larger community volunteer events, increase speaking engagements, collaborate with more local partners, and increase kit production and distribution locally and globally. A lot changed for team members around this time too. Cindy found a new home in the area, then remarried. On her U.S. travels, she picks up fabric orders at our wholesaler, to save on shipping costs. Tracy and Susannah both work full time but have really put in huge amounts of effort in weekend workshops and special events. Ruth and Mary continue to adjust the weekday sewing schedules to accommodate as many volunteers as possible. The Grove City Team became a United Way agency in 2025 which provided even more financial support for local period products. Many volunteers contributed to both the Grove City team sewing days and PA Collection Point work days so that it felt, all along, like one big team. I commuted in for the PA Collection Point days once a week and when I can, accompany Ruth and Mary to local events. My favorite places to visit are the Grove City High School, Mercer County Career Center, and the George Junior Republic LTSR building as each of those groups has helped support the DfG mission. We’ve also begun working with Slippery Rock University and Grove City College.
At the end of February 2026, we were informed that DfG International would be restructuring and the PA Collection Point would be closed. In March, we packed our remaining components and shipped them to the Missouri Collection Point. Then those who weren’t already on the Grove City team joined it to continuing volunteering.
We had a few collaborations planned for this spring (including the event for March described below) so we spent some time reconfiguring how those would turn out. What we did know is that we would continue to do the work together. Ruth has been reaching out to local partners to assure them that the Grove City team is still operational. As I write this at the end of March, we are looking forward to a new chapter for the Grove City team and this will be the first of many updates I post about my “new” team.
This blog post captures more of the PA Collection Point and Pittsburgh Team history, and my story of DfG involvement: The PA Collection Point Closes and I joined the DfG Grove City PA team.
March 2026:
Cindy and Ruth spoke at the Women’s Fellowship Breakfast at Oak Grove Church on Saturday March 14th. They distributed 7 Smart Packs to those interested in trying a washable pad and received donations to fund our team’s work.
Cindy and Ruth spoke at Shiloh Ministries’s women’s group (The Well) on March 17th. They distributed 15 Smart Packs to those interested in trying a washable pad and received donations to fund our team’s work.
March 21st, the Grove City College Student Government and Simple Charity volunteered with us. Instead of a packing day, we pivoted to do a sewing and assembling day with them. We had Smart Packs, Cups, and washable kits available, so we offered them to the students who were interested in trying sustainable products after learning more about DfG while they volunteered. We were thrilled to give out 5 menstrual cups, 4 Smart Packs, and 3 standard kits.
Period Pastor Pad 