GladRags Gab

Deanna Duke, who writes the blog, Crunchy Chicken, is being honored by her friends this month. This amazing woman started Goods 4 Girls and gave all of us who were floundering around, not knowing how to help, a great direction.  Goods 4 Girls collects cloth pads and sends them to school girls in Africa.  It's an amazing and wildly successful organization that GladRags is proud to be working with through our G4G Kit.  Her blog, Crunchy Chicken, is full of great info and inspiration and makes an entertaining read. She is committed to a better world and has the guts to speak her mind.

Deanna is a woman who can really turn thought into action. A Crunchy Tribute tells you how you can take some action too.  Our action for Deanna this month is a donation of four G4G Kits and we are putting the G4G Kit on 10% discount so you can help too!

Thanks Deanna for all your good work!

-Brenda 

Dan is our monthly friend for June. He's been my best friend since my days at UCLA. And yeah, he's a guy, but guys can be monthly GladRags friends too (see Oct 07 newsletter).  Dan is a hiker, camper, wilderness loving, city dwelling, college professor, and is an all around brilliant and funny man. While I know he would be passively pro-GladRags even if he didn't know me, because he does know and love me, he is a very vocal GladRags advocate.  He guerrilla markets for GladRags  by asking for them in every natural foods market in New England. And if you have dinner at his house (he's a great cook), you can be sure that sometime during dinner, he'll get out his GladRags brochures and demo pads and educate you about the virtures of reusables. (This has disconcerted more than a few unsuspecting guests).  After a few martinis, he's been known to throw on some tighty-whiteys over his jeans so he can show exactly how they work!  He's our East Coast Rep extraordinaire! 

We've got some new faces at GladRags these days. One of the great benefits of owning the GladRags business is meeting great customers and getting to work with amazing women.  Elizabeth and Tanya continue the tradition of GladRags employees being forward thinking, trail blazing, interesting women.

Elizabeth grew up in California's Bay Area. She moved to Portland, Oregon to attend Reed College in 2002. Since graduating with a BA in Anthropology, in addition to working for GladRags, Elizabeth has led groups for teenage survivors of domestic violence and organized books at the public library. Her interests include: learning, music, art where animals wearing clothing is featured prominently, gender studies, road trips, and Anthropological theory. This summer Elizabeth is joining other activists as part of a bicycle caravan for reproductive justice called Wanderlust where she’ll ride from New Orleans to New York. Elizabeth loves working for GladRags because she gets to help create more positivity around our cycles.

Tanya moved to Portland late summer 2007 from Boulder, Colorado where she had worked for Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy (a great place to purchase GladRags products!) for the past two and some odd years.  A graduate of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington in 2005, she has wanted to move back to the Pacific Northwest since leaving the area.  Her interests include but are not limited to making and appreciating all art, especially visual art, biking around Portland, friends, bars, concerts, gardens, fish tanks, traveling and languages. She has always been a passionate bleeder and has been dealing with her menstruation alternatively as well as sharing her knowledge with her peers since late high school.  She can’t really remember what inspired her to do so, but she thinks it might have had something to do with common sense and the book Cunt by Inga Muscio. She is really excited for the opportunity to work for a small, local, proud-to-be-bleeding company such as GladRags and it ready to give it her all.

Dear GladRags.

 I've been a customer for seven years. I came across my first GladRags pad in high school while dusting shelves at the Knoxville Community Food Co-op (in Tennessee). After a few weeks, I braved up enough to try the Keeper. I've never looked back to plastic and paper since!  Meanwhile, I've seen Glad Rags products appear at a wider variety of stores, and found that more and more of my friends already know about alternative menstrual products before I launch into my self-inspired sales pitch.

This July, I'm leading a 2-hour discussion about women's lives and bodies for young women at the Southeast Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute in Radford, Virginia. SUUSI is a week-long intergenerational camp for UUs (and other quirky folks), and I've been going since I was a kid. This is my first year on Young Adult staff, and I'm looking forward to building a supportive community for other women ages 18-25. Much of the year, we cope with anti-woman advertising, strict gender roles, and sexual harassment, but SUUSI is a time for us to decompress, share hugs, and build friendships that are amazingly intense for only a week. The discussion is called Wonder Woman; meanwhile the guys have their own discussion called He-Manery.(he-he)

I'm writing to ask whether you can provide any materials for the discussion. I was delighted to find a lot of great links at your website that I'll be tapping into for discussion questions and information. My vision is to talk about some of the major issues young women face in a positive light, and I think having some GladRags around for show-and-tell would give us something concrete to celebrate. I believe that feminism is not at all abstract, and the way we treat our bodies is integrally related to the way we carry ourselves in society. I would love to show women pads and/or cups and sponges as a starting point for hearing their own stories about being women in the (southeastern) US today. Then at the end of the discussion, we would distribute the materials as door prizes. What do you think? Our budget is slim because the camp keeps costs low in order to be affordable, and the young adults don't exactly show up with bulging wallets. If you could provide anything, we would all be grateful (and excited)!

Thank you,

Isabel Call
 

And our answer to Isabel was a resounding "yes!" to her request for materials. We love articulate, caring women like Isabel who share the word about GladRags and other reusable options with other young women. Thanks, Isabel and have fun at camp!

This announcement below is from Marwin, who is doing a menstrual forum. Thanks Marwin, for letting women know about their options.

-Brenda 

Hey everyone!

I am hosting an event called “On the Rag”.  It's a forum night….about your period!This event is taking place on Monday, April 14 2008 at 7:30 PM.  It will be at SUNY Albany in Albany, NY in the Humanities building room 116.
I am going to give a talk about the history of disposable feminine products, the problems with them, and alternatives that are available to women.  Then, a forum-style discussion will follow.  I received donations of cloth pads from women who make their own pads, as well as Gladrags pads!  The ladies at Gladrags made a generous donation of several pads in various colors and styles which I am going to raffle off at this event.  I also received a sample Keeper and Mooncup that I unfortunately cannot raffle off.

I am so excited preparing for this event!  A lot of the preparing I had to do for this forum was looking back into articles I wrote a few years ago from a zine I made.  It featured several articles about radical menstruation.  One was about finding out about cloth pads, buying a few, and then moving on to making my own cloth pads!  These experiences really changed my views about menstruation and my body 180 degrees.  I used to hate my period so much, but I felt a lot better about it after putting the effort into taking care of my body.  Making pads was fun for me, improved my sewing skills, and it actually made me excited to get my period because I wanted to try out my new Hello Kitty island print flannel pads!  Come to think of it, the first pads I actually bought were Gladrags seconds and I based my own designs off of Gladrags.

I wanted to do this forum because I really want to promote the usage of cloth and/or menstrual cups/sponges to other women.  SO MANY women do not even know that these things exist!  Or, if they do, they have negative views about cloth (it's dirty/smelly/leaks/it's gross etc.)  I want to dispel these myths with people by providing them with information, and giving them a hands-on experience with really beautifully made cloth pads which were generously donated by several companies.  Having the pads is great; there are so many styles to show people!  I also want to hand out patterns or websites with printable patterns and encourage women to make their own pads as well.

I am going to write another blog entry after the Forum night, so check back within the next week for more info (and possibly pics!) of how it went.

Anyone in the Albany area hopefully see you there!

–Marwin Margolies

We just sent off more GladRags to Chris Hanley who works with the Mekele Blind School. She sent us these photos and note. Chris, thank you for your good work.

Ethiopian School for the Blind
LOVES GLADRAGS

When I saw for myself that the 38 girls at the Mekele Blind School in northern Ethiopia had nothing to use other than found rags during their periods, I was determined to find a sustainable solution to the problem. Disposable pads wouldn’t be practical, as the school has no way of disposing it’s garbage and the expense would be prohibitive for them. Gladrags was a wonderful, welcome alternative. During my next trip to Mekele, in June of 2007, I packed about 100 holders and 300 liners. They are in constant use. I have just received an additional order of more than 400 liners at a considerable discount from Gladrags, and will be carrying these over with me when I go to Ethiopia in May, 2008.
So, from the 38 beautiful, bright girls at the Mekele Blind School, Ethiopia,
THANK YOU GLADRAGS!
Christina Hanley
Friends of Mekele Blind School
www.mekeleblindschool.org

Besides working with Chris Hanley, we're continuing to offer our Goods4Girls Kit (in which we donate a carry bag when our generous customers buy the pads). Deanna Duke founded Goods 4 Girls and is compiling pads and carry bags from cloth pads companies around the country to send to organizations in Africa.  It's amazing how that Always pad commercial has galvanized the effort to get washable pads to these girls instead of just disposables.  It seems like we are getting an email a day from organizations wanting us to donate cloth pads. It's women working for women!

Our customer, Juliana, recently emailed us this tip for getting out stains.  This one is a new one for me. 

"Here is a great cleaning tip, learned from a friend's grandma about removing blood stains. if you soak in milk before placing the item in the laundry, the blood stains come right out. Not sure if it is the enzymes in the milk or what but it has never failed me. I have even just done a brief soak about twenty minutes before  throuwing the stuff in the laundry and it has worked just fine. Of course the more set the stain the longer the soak. Share with the masses :)" - Juliana

Thanks for sharing, Juliana. I love multiuse products! Milk - who knew?!  Other great products are the Bi-O-Kleen products we listed on the site (don't try to wash down a cookie with them,though!). Soaking GladRags in our new soaking bucket or percolater with some Bac-Out is a safe and healthy way to keep them fresh.

I think one of the biggest problems confronting us today is media consolidation.  The implications of having only six or seven corporations who rule the airwaves and media outlets does not bode well for anyone beyond those who own those corporations.  Dissenting voices don't get heard and big business just gets to further its case.  As with most important issues, it's complicated. Here are some links to understand more.

Now with Bill Moyers (always a common sense voice of reason).

Media Channel (they watch the media) and this link takes you to Michael Copps dissenting statement on today's ruling.

 Seattle Times Editorial

I'll be making Walnut-Cheddar Harvest Loaf, vegetarian gravy, brussel sprouts, and cabbage salad to take to Thanksgiving this year.  The Harvest Loaf is from the really old cookbook, Diet for a Small Planet . My copy was used when I bought it and now it is totally ratty because of all the use I've given it. The loaf makes a great entree for those of us not indulging in the big bird.  When I've got time and want to impress friends I wrap it in phyllo and it's quite a presentation. 

While I'm cooking I'll be thinking about all the things I'm thankful for this year.  My healthy family, my wonderful friends, the chance to have had three art exhibits this year, and all the wonderful women I know though working at GladRags - customers, co-workers, store buyers, brokers, suppliers, competitiors/compatriots.

Best wishes to everyone for a safe, happy holiday.

-Brenda 

 Walnut-Cheddar Loaf

45 min 15 min prep
2     tablespoons olive oil
2     cups yellow onions, chopped
1     cup black walnuts, coarsely ground
1     cup cheddar cheese, grated
2     tablespoons lemon juice
2     eggs, beaten
2     tablespoons nutritional yeast
1     teaspoon caraway seeds
1 1/4 cups cooked brown rice (1/2 cup uncooked)
    salt
    pepper
1. Preheat oven to 350.
   2. Saute onions in olive oil until translucent.
   3. Mix with remaining ingredients, salt and pepper to taste and put in an oiled loaf pan.
   4. Bake for 30 minutes.

Tonight while my husband and I were cooking dinner we got on the subject of a recent opinion piece in our local paper,The Oregonian, in which our local right wing Bush sycophant columnist, David Reinhard,  was discussing whether or not waterboarding was torture. We both got so upset talking about it we had to calm ourselves down with some deep breaths and a beer. Fortunately the music we were playing was Michael Franti's most recent album "Yellfire". Bruce said, thank goodness for Michael Franti and we went back to making potato-leek soup knowing we aren't alone in this world of craziness we now live in.  

If anything ever happens to Bruce (perish the thought), I am going to hunt down Michael Franti and make him my own! If you don't know his music, find it, listen to it. He is a radical voice for truth and accountability and you can dance like crazy too. His song "To the East, to the West" could solve most of the world's problems. I looooovvvve him! 

 -Brenda