IU student Advocates for Youth Condom Collective members are partnering with IU’s Union Board and the School of Public Health for a Cookies and Condoms event Wednesday, March 24 in the basement of the Indiana Memorial Union. Cookies and Condoms will be a hybrid event giving away 2,500 Trojan condoms as well as cookies from Sugar and Spice. The pick-up portion of the event will be from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the basement of the IMU followed by an interactive Zoom workshop from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Freshman Rose Schnabel has been a member of Advocates for Youth Condom Collective for two years. The organization provides accessibility to condom and safe sex information for high school and college students. Inspired by the organization, Schnabel worked with IU groups to organize a Cookies and Condoms event this year and said she saw it as a great opportunity to advocate for and teach safer sex practices.
“This event is part of a larger goal I have at IU, which is to make HIV testing free for all students,” Schnabel said. “I saw this event as an opportunity to hook people into that initiative.”
The event will include a follow-up Zoom workshop, which will feature discussions with sexuality professionals from IU’s School of Public Health about what safe sex looks like in a pandemic. Schnabel said this is important because although IU has had a great response to COVID, she said they are ignoring the needs for sexual health advocacy and STI prevention.
“What they don’t realize is that even with quarantine and social distancing rules, sex does not stop during a pandemic,” Schnabel said. “We need to give resources to make sure it’s still happening safely and consensually.”
Freshman Caroline Sultz joined the event team after Schnabel inquired to the Union Board about collaborating, where Sultz serves as Director of Mind and Body.
“I actually had reached out to the Sexual Health Advocacy Group earlier in the year about their Cupcakes and Condoms event they usually hold, but they said they were going a different route due to COVID,” Sultz said. “This partnership is perfect because it’s a similar event being done, but in a COVID-safe way.”
Sultz said this event will give people access to information they may not have gotten before and remind students to treat sexual health as a part of overall health.
“People tend to experiment in college, so it’s necessary to give quick, easy information now because it will only become more important as they get older,” Sultz said. “Knowing about your mind and body is so important, and students tend to forget that sexual health is part of their overall wellness.”
