MAD Women helping women in need with care packages

On Dec. 19. the Madison Area Democratic Women (MAD Women) will gather for a new tradition for them that started last year.

"I was the president of the organization last year, and I wanted us to step out and do a service project that would somehow empower women, because I believe if you empower women, you empower the entire community," said Liz Mayo, who recently completed her term as Madwomen president. "And I listened to a story done by Story Corps on NPR about a woman who was working and had a regular paycheck and then she lost her job and her income.

"The next thing she knew, she had nothing and was living in a homeless shelter. At Christmas, she was missing her kids, and she didn't even have money that year to buy her daughter a birthday card."

Listening to that story gave Mayo the idea to put together care packages for homeless women in Jackson, because part of the woman's story is when she received a care package from a local group.

"A few of us went out and got a few essential items that people need like toiletries, feminine hygiene products, gloves, hats and other things to help homeless women get through a least part of the winter with what they need," Mayo said. "But when I heard the story, I remember her care package included scented lotion.

"She said the scent of the lotion in her package reminded her of baking cookies with her children. That hit me right in the stomach because I'm sure a lot of us think it could never happen to us, when in reality, a lot of us aren't that far from being in this very situation."

So lotion and other things like earrings became a part of the MAD Women's care packages.

"If you think about it, when you're on the streets, you're having to fight and scratch for the basic necessities and when we give to those less fortunate, how often are we thinking about anything besides their basic needs. For us women, whether we agree with it or not, so much of our value in our society is based on appearance, so if a little bit of lip gloss and hand lotion can make one of our local women on the street feel better about herself, we're glad to help with that too."

The care packages were assembled in blue back packs last year with a definitive reflective markings on it.

"We didn't want to go with pink or something like that because we didn't want to make the women unnecessarily vulnerable to possible attacks on the street," Mayo said. "So they were in very plain blue backpacks, but there was a little distinction for the packs with reflective markings that I could notice them when I saw them out."

Mayo did see a couple of women walking up Highland Avenue a few weeks later as she was in Grubb's Grocery at Jackson Walk.

"I didn't run out there and approach them or anything like that, but as I watched them, I felt a connection with them," Mayo said.

The MAD Women members do not distribute the packs to the women. They give them to Jackson Police, and their officers give them out.

"They're the ones that know them and have relationships with them, so we're not going to intrude on them," Mayo said. "Officer (Captain Rochelle Staten) helped us out with distributing, and she's connecting us with other officers who can help like Danielle Jones."

The group assembled 70 care packages last year. The goal this year is 100.

If anyone wants to help by donating, they can do so by searching for "Madison Area Democratic Women Backpack Project 2024" on the site for Amazon wish lists.

The group will assemble the packages on Dec. 19 at Martin's Catering (1410 Chester Street in East Jackson).

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news