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Madison Mackey carries containers filled with colorful fabric and string through the halls of the Academy of the Holy Names in Albany. She brings everything into her school’s courtyard, an enclosed outdoor space covered in fallen leaves, and begins to set up stations at each of the wooden tables.

Mackey, a senior, leads a handful of fellow students and even some of her teachers through the steps of each station. It’s all part of the school’s annual “MoonBee” day that Mackey organized last month.

The MoonBee is a day dedicated to creating reusable and washable menstrual kits in partnership with the MoonCatcher Project, a local non-profit organization based in Schenectady that creates and distributes the kits to third world and underdeveloped countries with little to no access to pads or tampons.

The day was organized and implemented by Mackey as part of her Gold Award for Girl Scouts, the highest award that a Girl Scout can earn. Mackey first brought the MoonBee to Holy Names in 2019. This year was the first time students were able to meet in person again; last year’s event was held virtually because of the pandemic.

AHN students helped assemble over 100 MoonCatcher kits at the recent MoonBee. Simultaneously, Mackey organized a social-media fundraiser for the MoonCatcher Project in support of women’s month, which raised over $2,800 and enabled around 535 kits to be made.

“People always think of Girl Scouts as cookie making but it’s so much more than that,” Mackey said. “It’s a lot of service work, a lot of giving back and just helping other people in need, and that’s the part I think people miss. It’s just so much more than selling cookies.”

Mackey, who has been in Girl Scouts since she was in kindergarten, first heard about the MoonCatcher Project through her church, Metropolitan New Testament Mission Baptist Church in Albany, which hosted a MoonBee years ago. Right before COVID, Mackey was re-introduced to the project when her Girl Scout troop attended a MoonBee. As part of her Gold Award, she started working on a partnership between the MoonCatcher Project and Holy Names.

“I loved the project and idea,” Mackey said. “As I got older, I realized how much more important it was to be educated on menstruation and to have access to the supplies.”

Now, thanks to Mackey’s annual event, Holy Names students “are able to participate in a MoonBee and become educated on important global issues,” she said. “Often in third-world countries, girls are missing up to 50 days of school a year because they’re menstruating and unable to go to school. So when I presented this idea to my school they absolutely loved it, and I was so happy we could continue with it.”

Each menstrual pad from the MoonCatcher kit can be worn without underwear for girls in the poorest communities worldwide. Importantly, these kits provide a way for girls to stay in school while menstruating, giving them a greater chance of completing their education.

Ellie von Wellsheim, founder and executive director of the non-profit, came out to Holy Names for the day last month and helped students with making the kits. Von Wellsheim, an entrepreneur, artist and long-time activist, founded the MoonCatcher Project in 2011 after learning that girls in underdeveloped countries often saved plastic bags or newspapers — many of which were unsanitary and could lead to infections — to use during menstruation.

“I heard this and I couldn’t believe it,” von Wellsheim said. “I thought maybe I could do something and it caught on.”

Having grown up in her father’s sewing factory, von Wellsheim got to work on engineering a reusable pad. Since its inception, the project has made an impact in over 15 countries around the world — including Uganda, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia and Pakistan — and supports eight sewing guilds in Africa.

Mackey is now also one of the newest and youngest board members of the MoonCatcher Project.

“I think making an annual day at Holy Names is super important because in the United States we take so many things for granted,” Mackey said. “If anyone here gets their period, they can ask a friend or they can go to the nurse’s office and get menstrual supplies. But in these third-world countries, these girls don’t have anything. I just really wanted other people to know how blessed and fortunate we are that we do have this access and that we have access in our school to continue with classes, and these girls can’t even go to school.”

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