Annual Pad Party combines efforts with It Takes a Village

After 15 years, The Pad Party is evolving with a new partnership.

The effort, organized by a group of friends, gathers donated menstrual products and financial donations for The Banquet. Starting this year, it will work in partnership with It Takes a Village, which works with various nonprofit service organizations annually, creating hundreds of hygiene kits and home supply kits to support the community with the essential personal products needed in everyday life.

The Pad Party will continue to serve as a drive for menstrual hygiene products, primarily serving The Banquet. Instead of products directly going to The Banquet, the physical products will go to It Takes a Village, and It Takes A Village will make an equivalent financial donation to The Banquet – a change in process that will help The Banquet better manage its limited space in its facility.

“The Banquet let us know they physically didn’t have room for all the donations we would provide them through the annual Pad Parties we were holding, so a few years ago, they asked us if we could shift to donating dollars instead of physical products,” said Katrina Lehr-McKinney, one of the founders of The Pad Party.

“This new model for funding The Banquet’s menstrual hygiene product needs will be a win-win for not only that organization but also It Takes a Village, which is serving hundreds of people every year with the hygiene kits it makes and distributes.”

Donations can be dropped off from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 8 at Queen City Bakery, 324 E. Eighth St. The community is invited to provide menstrual hygiene products, including pads, tampons and incontinence products.

The effort goes back to the original Pad Party in 2010, where Lehr-McKinney invited friends and colleagues over to her house for a casual gathering combining food, drink, conversation and what ended in thousands of menstrual hygiene products donated to The Banquet.

In the 15 years that the group has worked on this project, a half-million products and thousands of dollars have been donated to The Banquet.

Financial contributions can be made to The Pad Party efforts for The Banquet via Venmo @thebanquetsf or by mailing a check to The Banquet, 900 E. Eighth St., Sioux Falls, SD 57103, referencing The Pad Party in the memo for both.

The founding women of The Pad Party are Heather Krause, Katrina Lehr-McKinney, Brienne Maner, Lesli Olson and Carmen Toft. The group received a Spirit of Volunteerism Award from the Helpline Center in 2022.