Mary’s Place is a shelter for homeless families with children that is located in Minneapolis. It focuses on helping provide families with safety, stability, and housing.

The founder and director of this organization is Mary Jo Copeland. Her passion for caring for those in need has helped house an average of 600 families a night at her shelter. Mary’s place supplies 68 apartments that fit 5-12 people and 32 smaller apartments that fit 3-5 people. Not only does it provide shelter, but it also provides food that families can acquire for free. There’s also medical care for little to no price. People there can go to the dentist for free or seek help from other medical assistants.

Benilde-Saint Margaret’s brought attention to Mary’s Place through a presentation given by two BSM students. Seniors Lillian Hertel and Mercedes O’Neil created a slideshow and Kahoot that focused on the purpose of Mary’s Place and the problems that the families who go there face. One problem is how women don’t have access to feminine hygiene products. The root of this problem is the prices of products that a majority of women can’t afford. Since it’s important for BSM as a school to come forward and help women in need, it was decided that something needs to be done. “It’s heavily stigmatized and a lot of people don’t talk about menstruation and related issues because of the taboo surrounding them,” Hertel said.

As a result, BSM dedicated a Common Basket to funding the purchase of sanitary products for Mary’s Place. The Common Basket is part of the campus ministry. It is a program that teaches the school how to give back, and emphasizes sharing our time along with talent and treasure. During the school’s mass on Tuesday, Nov. 1st, baskets were given out that allowed students to help those in need by donating money. The money raised will go towards buying feminine hygiene products which are a basic need for women dealing with menstruation.

This Common Basket was initiated with help from theology teacher Ms. Peg Hodapp as well. “I think we’ve done a great job. We raised over $1,000 and that blew my mind because if you think about it, most people don’t carry cash,” Hodapp said.

Thanks to Hertel, O’Neil, Hodapp and those that donated, this issue was able to be addressed by BSM. Because of this Common Basket’s success, the campus ministry has high hopes for future Common Baskets.