"A Day of Beauty"

Today was Salon Red's "4th Annual Day of Beauty". What a totally awesome experience! Normally the Salon is closed on Monday's, but once a year they open on a Monday for a good cause. On this day, all of the clients are mentally handicapped, school-age kids-- they get to come to the Salon and pick any of the services that they would like to experience. They get massages, haircuts, perms, dye jobs, waxing, facials, manicures, pedicures, etc.-- anything they want. And it's totally free for the kids! The manager of Salon Red, Gloria, organizes the entire event and she spends months collecting donations to make the day even more magical for the kids. We partnered with Salon Red and donated the food, other businesses donated lots of items that were put into goody bags for the kids to take home with them. They even had clowns and tents in the parking lot to make the day even more magical!

I took my prep "Guru" Ana with me to witness this. I know she gets burned out by doing so much of the catering prep and I wanted her to see the benefits of her efforts, so that the next time we have a big food donation she will look at it from a different point of view (not that she's ever negative about her job, I just wanted to give her a new perspective). Ana and I walked through the salon and I took pictures- I spotted Gloria's sister, Kim, sitting in a chair with tin foil all over her head. She told me "I'm gonna be a BLONDE!". Another girl posed for me by my car and showed off her new bright red nail polish on the way to get her foil removed to reveal her new blonde streaks! The kids were so appreciative and so happy to be pampered and doted over.

On days like this, I really love my job. I'm happy that I'm in a position that allows me to help pull events like this off. Kudos to Gloria and the staff of Salon Red. They worked their butts off and I'm sure that none of the kids will ever forget the Day of Beauty that they experienced today.