Today we’d like to introduce you to Gina Elmazi.
Hi Gina, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
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, and Samantha Tribble offered to host the next stuffing party at her photo 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. In April 2022, they had another stuffing party where volunteers filled over 3,300 bags; another in July, over 7,000 bags were filled. As of 2023, we have officially stuffed 20,000 bags and delivered them to every single public school in Volusia (multiple times!), Flagler and Seminole County!
Let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
We’ve been extremely fortunate to find supporters, volunteers, and donors in Volusia, Flagler, and Seminole counties. From Day 1, people gave us fantastic feedback, excitedly donated their unused cosmetic bags, and enthusiastically purchased from our Amazon wishlist. Local businesses have jumped at the opportunity to become drop-off locations. Other nonprofits have held successful product drives. The Covid shutdown was a struggle, of course. Since schools were closed, there was no way of getting 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! We need help with growing in Orange, Brevard, and Osceola counties. 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.
Thanks for sharing that. Could you tell us more about your business?
I started Social Media Advertising Corp in 2018. We focus on “bridging the gap” between local businesses and their target clientele. I administrate Facebook and Instagram business pages. I do content creation, post-scheduling, sharing, and influencing. I am hyper-focused on “the little guys” and keep my prices affordable to the mom-and-pop who do not have a large advertising budget. SMAC helped The Oopsie Project get started! I asked my clients to donate in exchange for advertising, and it worked! These businesses helped us create and cover the costs of initiating and filing a new 501(c)3.
What are your plans for the future?
Chapters! Our next goal is to go nationwide. We receive requests from people nationwide looking to start an Oopsie Project in their area. We’d love to be able to send them Standard Operating Procedures and let them form their board, find their volunteers, and collect and distribute their own Oopsie Bags to schools in their county.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.goodforgirlsinitiative.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_oopsie_project/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goodforgirlsinitiative
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/groups/382110652453559
Image Credits
All professional photography is courtesy of Lunar Studio, owners: Samantha Tribble and Stephen Holvik
