MOSO Caps Project Pitch: Change the Cycle on Newsmakers

Joplin, MO – One quarter of all teen girls struggles to afford products needed to deal with menstruation.

It’s a problem for 1/3 of adult women. It is a problem compounded by the fact that period products are taxed as a luxury item throughout the four-state region. Students in the MOSO Caps program at Missouri Southern State University are working to solve the problem and their approaches are the focus of this week’s Newsmakers program.

Jolie Powell and Ashlyn Santini are part of the MOSO Caps Human Services Strand and called their pitch project, Change the Cycle. They discuss a donation drive getting underway to provide period products to Loving Grace and Lafayette House clients. Leaders of those charities join the conversation to discuss the need for such donations. Isabella Manes and Brenna Richards who are in the Health Sciences Strand talk about their effort to create Period Packs which include a variety of supplies and comfort items which would be placed in schools where they say girls often struggle with period supplies.

Newsmakers is airing nightly at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. the week of May 19 on KGCS-TV and will air at 5:30 a.m. Saturday, May 25 on KOAM-TV. It is also posted on the station’s YouTube channel: KGCS – Missouri Southern State University.

KGCS programming can be seen on channel 21 and is also available on regional cable television systems such as Sparklight, Mediacom and Suddenlink Communications. The station operates as a service of the Department of Communications at Missouri Southern State University.