It’s hard to imagine going without food, water and shelter, which are things often taken for granted. It’s even harder to imagine going without toiletries and undergarments, yet many women face this issue every day.
Lehigh alumnae Joanie Balderstone and Rebecca McIntire created Distributing Dignity, a nonprofit organization aimed at helping women in need, specifically with providing women with new bras and feminine products.
While at Lehigh, the two women had done philanthropy with their sorority Delta Zeta, but never anything like this. Balderstone and McIntire first came up with the idea for Distributing Dignity in 2009, while working with a committee to help provide business clothing to a homeless center in Camden, New Jersey.
During one of these trips, one woman pulled them aside and explained how she didn’t have a decent bra to wear beneath her business clothes. From then on, Balderstone and McIntire began hosting parties to spread the word.
Jeey Moncayo, the bilingual case manager at the Camden County Women’s Center, one of the many organizations Distributing Dignity helps and partners with, said Balderstone and McIntire host creative parties such as Mardi Bra Party or a Brabeque. Moncayo said these funny parties help spread awareness, and she got involved with the cause when she attended one of these parties.
“I was invited by a friend to a party Distributing Dignity was holding,” she said. “Each person going was asked to bring a bra, and I was curious.”
Distributing Dignity delivers a stock of bras every few months. Boxes split up by sizes are delivered to the Camden County Women’s Center, where the workers bring them to the women in need.
The organization grew through parties, and Balderstone and McIntire found their success by inviting friends to events and by utilizing social media.
“We told our sorority sisters who we’d gone to Lehigh with,” Balderstone said. She added that many of them attended the parties to support the cause.
The organization has two different kinds of relationships. One is with resource non-residential centers, like the Camden County Women’s Center. To centers like these, they deliver boxes of the bras and feminine hygiene products, and the center then gives them to those in need. This is one of distributing resources.
The other kind of relationship is a more personal one. Balderstone and McIntire interact with the women who are receiving the bras or products. When hand delivering bras, the duo wraps them in tissue paper with ribbons, so they give them like a present.
Over the summer, the founders went on a trip to a residential center for homeless veterans. They had just received a fortunate donation of name-brand bras. The women came out to meet Balderstone and McIntire. One woman was so excited she tore open the package right away, and upon seeing how high quality the bra was she exclaimed, “Aw it’s even a good one, too.”
Distributing Dignity often gives enough for three to four months in their drop offs. Their website states, “Women want to help other women, especially with something so essential.” To Balderstone and McIntire, it’s a unique form of helping.
“People care and they want to help, to support them. It brightens their day,” McIntire said. “We get to meet all types of people, from all kinds of social groups, all different ages and with all different backgrounds, yet it is sharing a common goal with strangers.”
More information regarding Distributing Dignity and their partners can be found at distributingdignity.org. In addition to working with organizations, they also have donation drop-off sites in New Jersey.
Comment Policy
Comments posted to The Brown and White website are reviewed by a moderator before being approved. Incendiary speech or harassing language, including comments targeted at individuals, may be deemed unacceptable and not published. Spam and other soliciting will also be declined.
The Brown and White also reserves the right to refuse the publication of entirely anonymous comments.