Today we’d like to introduce you to Good For Girls Initiative The Oopsie Project. They and their team shared their story with us below:
In 2018, Amber Carman started the Oopsie Project to supply Ipsy bags stuffed with feminine products to as many local schools as possible. Gina Elmazi saw what she was doing and decided to help. She asked her Facebook friends for Ipsy bag donations. She asked her business clients to donate menstrual products to fill them. She enlisted the help of friends to stuff the bags and distribute 40 at a time to all Volusia County Elementary, Middle, and High schools. At that first meeting, they put together about 200 bags to distribute. Things were going great, but then the pandemic hit and slowed things down. In the Fall of 2021, Gina decided to start things up again. Samantha Tribble offered to host the next stuffing party at her photography studio – Lunar Studio, in New Smyrna Beach, where they met Kelly Kalweit.
Another stuffing party was planned for January 2022, where they stuffed over 1,500 Oopsie bags. After that stuffing party, they formed a board to “make it legit” and became a 501(c)(3) organization. In March 2022, Good for Girls Initiative Inc. was founded, and in April 2022, they were approved by the IRS to become a 501c3 designated charity. With Gina Elmazi as the President, Samantha Tribble as the Vice President, and Kelly Kellweit as the Treasurer, they sought the help of a virtual assistant, and that’s when they brought on Melissa Powers as a volunteer. When school started again in 2022, Melissa Powers joined the board as the Secretary of the Good for Girls Initiative. In April 2022, they had another stuffing party where volunteers filled over 3,300 bags and another in July where over 7,000 bags were filled! By the beginning of the new year (2023), Kellweit had resigned, and the Good for Girls board was searching for a new treasurer. In April 2023, the board found their new treasurer and another board member to join the team! The board was happy to welcome Kirstyn Seward as the new treasurer and another board member, Chandler Vogler, as the new chief marketing director of the team. It’s been a happy symphony of collaboration and much-needed help for the organization’s success! In 2023, over 12,000+ bags were stuffed & distributed to schools, and the initiative started participating in the Always Changing Programs in schools to provide not only oopsie bags but deodorants for girls and boys as well! This same year, The Oopsie Project was able to expand its reach from not only Volusia and Flagler counties but also Seminole County! In 2024, the board hopes to surpass those numbers and expand to include even more counties!
Please talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned. Looking back, has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Fortunately, We have found supporters, volunteers, and donors in Volusia, Flagler, and Seminole counties. From Day 1, people gave us fantastic feedback, excitedly donated unused cosmetic or ‘ipsy’ type bags, and graciously purchased from our Amazon wish list. Local businesses have jumped for joy at the chance to become drop-off locations for donors to bring donations to easily. Other nonprofits have held successful product drives for us. The Covid shutdown was a struggle, of course. Since schools were closed, we could not get Oopsie bags to needy girls. We paused the delivery portion of the program but still collected bags and supplies. Gina’s living room became storage for hundreds of bags until schools opened! Some of the bigger struggles have been with gaining traction in other counties, such as Orange, Brevard, and Osceola. We’d love to expand our program to supply Oopsie bags in these areas. However, we need many more supplies to deliver to all public schools. For example, Volusia County has 75 public schools. We donate 40 Oopsie bags to each school twice a school year. That’s 6,000 Oopsie bags a year. In comparison, Orange County has 210 public schools. To provide the same number of Oopsie bags each year to every school in Orange County, we would need to collect 16,800 cosmetic bags, 33,600 menstrual pads, 33,600 feminine wipes, 33,600 pantyliners, and 1,760 tampons. Those numbers only count some of the private and charter schools we will gladly deliver to if the need is there and we have it.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
On a personal level, all the board members own their own businesses and still donate their time to The Oopsie Project with no complaints! All board members are also drop-off locations as well for The Oopsie Project.
- Our President, Gina, runs her social media management agency, Social Media Advertising Corporation or S.M.A.C.
- VP Samantha owns a full-service photography studio called Lunar Studio.
- Our Secretary, Melissa, owns a Massage Therapy practice called A Hand In Health Massage.
- Treasurer Kirstyn Seward runs an accounting and tax firm called Seward Accounting.
- Lastly, our Chief Marketing Director runs a marketing business called Rickhouse Marketing.
With all of our board members being busy boss ladies, spouses, parents, etc., you can see why we need all the volunteer help we can get! We try to do as much as we can on our end, but all our supporters’ help makes this non-profit shine bright and stretch far! Our volunteers help with various tasks and always accept more people to sign up. We have volunteers who deliver extra supplies to schools as requested or go to our local businesses to pick up supplies that have been dropped off at drop-off locations. We have volunteers for our stuffing parties, helping with various tasks such as social media or virtual assistant work and just helping to spread the word. We also have a new Event Committee for which we are taking volunteers to help us with events that we would otherwise not be able to attend due to our busy schedules. Our volunteers are the real MVPs!
We’d love to hear about your fond memories from growing up.
I can’t say that any girl who has had an ‘oopsie’ moment has remembered it fondly, but we typically do remember it! That’s exactly what our project is here for. To take something that is not such a “fun” time and give it a little extra pizzazz with a cute, discreet Oopsie bag to get girls through the rest of their school day.
Contact Info:
- Website: goodforgirlsinitiative.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_oopsie_project/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theoopsieproject
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/goodforgirlsinitiative
Image Credits
All professional photography is courtesy of Lunar Studio, owners: Samantha Tribble and Stephen Holvik
