International Women's Day.

"The empowered woman is powerful beyond measure and beautiful beyond description." - Steve Maraboli 
I've never celebrated International Women's Day per se. I like to think that as a feminist I celebrate being a woman every day and so have never seen the point of straying from my daily schedule to celebrate the day. 

This year was different. A couple of my friends and I are volunteering with our local women's shelter for a school project by collecting donations of clothes, toiletries, etc. They mentioned they were holding an event at the Delta hotel in celebration of International Women's day and asked if we would be interested in volunteering at the event to run a table where women were able to fill a bag with free items. 

The items included shampoo and conditioner, perfume samples, pads and tampons, hair dyes, and hats and mittens. We were honoured to be asked and when we found it didn't interfere terribly with our class schedule we said yes. 

It was such a fun experience to see the women so happy. I realized how much I take simple things like tampons for granted. It doesn't ever cross my mind that there are women who can't afford them.

There were performs and guest speakers there to help celebrate the day. My favourite performance was a group of four native women from the reserve just outside of town who sang and played their hide drums. The song they chose was The Women's Gathering Song, very fitting for the day.

The guest speaker, inspector Monique Rollins is the city's first woman inspector. She gave an inspiring speech about women empowering other women in leadership roles. I walked away from her speech feeling strong, confident, and encouraged.

It was an amazing way to spend the day. Celebrating being a woman with other women made me so proud of my gender.

 Women are so powerful.