Community Service is a Family Affair

For Shoshana Levy ’22, KO’s core value of “care beyond self” is not an empty platitude. “For the longest time, I’ve loved community service and volunteering. It makes me feel good as a person. I’m just a person who has always loved helping out,” Levy said. 

Just recently, Levy, along with her mother, aunt, cousins, and grandmother attended a ‘packing party’ through the local West Hartford non-profit organization, Dignity Grows. This recently founded organization supplies monthly personal and menstrual hygiene products to women and girls who cannot afford them. “I told my grandmother immediately about the organization because she is the first person I tell about my volunteering. She’s always volunteering herself. When I found out about the packing party, I knew she would want to join in,” Levy said.

Dignity Grows was founded by West Hartford resident Jessica Zachs who was inspired by the 2018 documentary Period. End of Sentence about women in India with no access to monthly menstrual supplies. Through her research, Zachs learned that 20 percent of women in the United States can’t afford personal feminine hygiene products. She decided to do something about it. 

An army of volunteers, including Levy and her family, assembled to create hundred of totes filled with soap, deodorant, body wash, and feminine products. Not only does it feel good to help another, but it’s also especially meaningful when three generations of a family do it together. The Dignity Totes are sent to 14 distribution partners in the Greater Hartford area, all local non-profit organizations. The distribution partners, in turn, disseminate the totes to those in need among their constituents.

Levy will continue to find ways to connect with the local community. It’s part of her DNA. “My grandmother is an inspiration, and it makes me happy knowing that what I do can impact another person’s life,” she said.