Sustainable Cycles, here we go!

I write from the library at Colorado State in Fort Collins, CO. We biked here this morning with great weather. But what’s even GREATER than that is the workshop (well, 2 actually) that Sustainable Cycles put on yesterday in Boulder.

The first was at the Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center, an organization that provides affordable reproductive and sexual healthcare to people. The workshop was held during lunch, so clinic workers trickled in and out during the hour. We had a great disscussion, and 5 people got new cups. Most exciting, though, was that 3 of those people are high school students! The clinic has a program with local high schools where “shapers” or peer health educators, hang out after school and talk health. None of them had tried a cup before, and I look forward to what comes out of their experience! They had some good suggestions like “You should instragram this” and getting more into social media to access the youth…instagram about your cups, spokeswomen!

L to R: Rachel, 2 ‘shapers’, and Sundari (the lovely woman who helped me organize both workshops. Thank you, Sundari!)

Second was at the Radish housing co op near the University of Colorado. Over 20 people attended! I gave away about 10 more cups, and we had an almost 2-hour discussion about menstruation, menstrual products, birth control, sexual health, and health in general. I am stoked to create a space where people can talk freely about what’s going on with their periods, share experiences about methods of birth control, and ask specific questions about how to clean a cup or a cloth pad or a sponge! There were a range of people there–from mothers to almost-mothers to pre-menstrual (though she may have been dragged along by her mom :P).

The workshop at Radish Co op–we all squeezed around a table in the living room.

It’s exciting, it’s happening. I got many thanks for doing this project–and I thanked them for attending and sharing! The goal of this bicycle ride is to get people talking and researching about periods, and to create a community to support each other in doing so. I think it’s working.