Together, we can end period poverty in Montana!
Crescent Montana reduces education and health disparities in Montana by providing readily available menstrual products and education materials for students and those in need.
Our mission:
1 in 4 girls in the United States have missed school because they didn't have adequate access to menstrual products. When students don't have the period products they need to confidently and healthily manage their period, it disrupts their attendance, education, and student success.
At Crescent, we believe Montana students have the right to an education without being hindered by poor menstrual care.
We work to eliminate period poverty in Montana by providing free and readily-available period products to Montana schools, with an emphasis on rural, low income and at-risk communities.
Crescent empowers young women, valuing both their health and education, and showing them that the two are not mutually exclusive
Bozeman High School Senior, 2019
This is incredible!! I really appreciate that you are helping provide menstrual hygiene products and reproductive education to schools. Thank you.
By making menstrual products free and available to any student in need, we are helping to dismantle the pervasive stigma that menstrual needs are less important than other daily needs.
Schools provide free toilet paper to our students, what makes period products any different?
During the critical period of adolescence, tackling this stigma is especially important.
Crescent shows Montana students they don't need to choose between being comfortable and healthy and getting an education.
Bozeman High School First-Year, 2019
About us
Summer 2018: two recent high school graduates in a restaurant booth, two plates of pancakes between them, a crescent moon dangling in the sky above them.
Crescent’s two co-founders first began dreaming in the Summer of 2018 after one of them pitched the idea of starting a non-profit over an IHOP pancake dinner. In searching for the best way they could give back to their community, period poverty (although they didn’t know the term at the time) kept popping up. Neither of them knew of a local group addressing the issue specifically in Montana… and sure enough, there wasn’t one.
Fast forward and Crescent Montana is an entirely student-run and student-led 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to combating period poverty in Montana. Doubling as a student organization at Montana State University, we are overjoyed to continue giving back to our larger Montana community by providing free and readily accessible period products, creating educational menstrual health materials, and working to normalize and destigmatize the experiences of menstruation.
Board of
Directors
Jay Brito
President
Dale Hansen
Vice President
Owen Burroughs
Treasurer
Thea Keene
Secretary
Cass Robinson
Member at Large
team
Abby Bernard
Executive Director
Lauren Warrenfeltz
Development & Communications
volunteers and supporters
Dr. Mary Alice Carlson MSU Faculty Co-Adviser
Margaret Davies MSU Staff Co-Advisor
Darby May Boardroom Bobcat, Board Member Ex-Officio
Kellie Cahill Legal Services
Sam Alm Original dispenser design
Emmarose Mills Photography
Clare Mills Photo & Design
Sean Kelly Music
Audrey Miller
Ryan Swimley
Sage Crawford-Kahrl
Alison Fitzpatrick
Olivia Ross
Derek Perry
Fiona Fick
Collin Wright
Stella Ryan
Jaime Bard
Grant McNamara
Want to Help out too?
Current Projects
Basket Program:
Free Period Products For Schools
Beginning in 2018, Crescent launched its Period Product Basket Initiative to help combat period poverty in Montana.
We partner with Montana schools by providing and stocking free period product baskets in school restrooms. The baskets, which are designed to be friendly and inviting, are accompanied by informational posters containing accurate instructions for safe product use (kindly provided by Bridgercare and Central Montana Family Planning Clinic).
Currently, we have partnered with over 50 MT schools and are on a waitlist for 2023 partnerships. Click here to learn more about our school program or to request products for your school.
With kind support from:
Educational Program:
Free Menstrual Education Materials
We're super excited to announce Crescent's latest project: developing educational materials for students, parents, and schools!
Our Team is collaborating to create inviting and accessible animated videos describing how to use pads and tampons. Not only educational, these short clips are designed to help normalize experiences and guide menstruators through accurate and safe period product use. Our aim is to make these videos available not only through our website, but also via a URL code on our (free!) informational posters. Menstruators will be able to scan the code and watch an informational video, all while in the stall!
We are also developing lesson plans designed to guide both parents and teachers in teaching about menstruation. But, access to information like this is just one small way to diminish educational period poverty in our community—stay tuned for more project updates or click here to donate!