Posts Tagged ‘community’

t’s a six day count down before 2nd Xmas Beauty Night make over program in Prince George! Although the buzz is growing, we are still looking for volunteers and contributions for December 14th!

If you are unable to go, please continue to forward the message.

We need hairdressers, makeup artists, aestheticians, RMTs, volunteers to pick up contributions and much more. We are hoping that if we get enough volunteers and supplies, we might be able to increase the events to run 4 times per year!

Eventually if we develop the resources, it would be wonderful to be able to offer programming four nights per week. Based on what the women want, that would include womyn’s gym (one on one personal training), yoga classes, mom & tot nutrition classes, journaling, Kids club, personal development & inner beauty boot camp. Next year, it would be wonderful to be able to have the xmas stocking initiative & Knit Fit community building programs included with our Prince George activities.

In light of the 20 year anniversary of the Montreal Massacre on Sunday (December 6th, 2009) has prompted discussion around the country about what we can do to help women living with violence. Our makeover program is a great way to:

Reintroduce touch to victims of violence
Integrate women who are isolated into communities
Create opportunities for the participants to get involved
with the program.
Build community.

In BC alone, the Highway of Tears and the DTES Missing Women are a call for action. By working together, we can make a difference in the lives of many. When we make someone feel good, we give them hope. When you have hope you can do anything.

Last night I spoke with Knit Fit founder and program coordinator, Laura Mah. On Monday afternoon, Laura headed to White Rock Elementary to talk about how we can work together to make a difference in the lives of many.  Ten year old, Katie Dalinghaus and her class spent the afternoon knitting scarves for Knit Fit. Several parents were on hand to help the kids knit the scarves that we will be handing out on December 14th and on Christmas Eve.

While she and Jenny Tran embarked on the process of wrapping 300 hand made scarves, I asked Laura to fill me in on how many people have been involved in the Knit Fit portion of our annual Xmas Stocking Drive.

This morning, Jenna sent the following update to post:

Knit Fit has been busy getting out the word for why Knit Fit was established. In the past 2 weeks, Knit Fit has already visited 3 different schools to teach students how to knit and show them the importance of giving back. So far, Knit Fit has met Lord Beaconsfield Elementary, Lord Strathcona Elementary, and Chief Maquinna Elementary.

At Lord Beaconsfield, Knit Fit spoke with 2 different classes, and again will be visiting Wednesday to teach the kids how to knit.
At Lord Strathcona, Knit Fit organized a club for students who were interested in knitting. These meeting are held each Monday at lunch. At these meeting students will come together and knit, while enjoying their lunches and having good conversation.

At Chief Maquinna, Knit Fit attended their Peace Concert held in respect for Remembrance Day. Here Knit Fit talked about the background of Knit Fit in front of the Maquinna neighbourhood community, while also sharing some personal stories of how   Knit Fit has affected them.

When I did the math, I realized Knit Fit is actively involving hundreds of kids, youth, parents and teachers. When you combine those volunteer efforts with the volunteers that have been sewing and decorating the 600 Xmas stockings, we have a community effort that not only impacts the Beauty Night Society participants who receive the warm scarves and stockings, it also affects all of the people who contributed their time, energy, skills and money to make this project happen.

When I was interviewed by Telus Television last Monday, I was asked how many volunteers do we have and what the demographic of our volunteers are. I realized we have thousands of volunteers. Some who work directly with our participants. Others who constantly fundraise and create events to raise awareness and contributions so we can continue to provide tools for disenfranchised women and children to make positive life style choices and heal themselves and the community. Many who mentor the children in our community who teach them leadership and how they can impact someone’s life with their actions. The children and youth who believe if we give from our hearts, we can heal the world. When all of us work together, we  change lives.

In regards to working together, it is important to recognize that we learn things from everyone. Through laughter and love, we can combine the leadership development and contributions to change the world. When women wrap the warm scarves around their neck or when their eyes light up as they open up the stocking decorated especially for them, I believe it does the human spirit a great deal of good.

In 9 years, the award-winning non-profit program has provided 10,000 makeovers to marginalized women and youth in Vancouver, Prince George, and Toronto. Beauty Night Society’s Monday makeover night on December 14th will include some North Pole notables—Mrs. Claus and her elves handing out Christmas stockings designed by Nancy Black. “This is the seventh year of our annual stocking drive,” says Caroline MacGillivray. “on December 14th, we will be handing out 600 Xmas stockings and 500 scarves in Toronto, Prince George and Vancouver.”

Typically, Beauty Night Society’s Monday makeover night at the PHS Life Skills Centre in Vancouver unites an impressive roster of Lower Mainland volunteers. Hairdressers, makeup artists, estheticians, massage therapists, plus many more volunteers join forces to offer services for the women.

Carrie Wheeler Talent Management, BC Hydro, and TD Canada Trust have been collecting donations of skin care, makeup, nail, dental, body, and hair care products to fill the stockings with. Other donations include gloves and toques. Beauty Night Knit Fit founder and program coordinator, Laura Mah have been offering knitting clinics to children in our communities. By knitting the community together, Beauty Night Knit Fit volunteers have knitted hundreds of scarves to hand out with the stockings.

Beauty Night Society Birthday party will also be making spirits bright for both volunteers and their makeover subjects with Christmas movies and other Xmas goodies. “This event is a tremendous community effort! Hundreds of volunteers have contributed thousands of hours to make this event special,”says MacGillivray, “Since the summer months, we have been cutting stockings and knitting scarves.”

The community has kicked in to help. Spearheaded by Beauty Night’s Stocking Coordinator, Blair Lockhart, designer, Nancy Black, Beauty Night Knit Fit’s Laura Mah and Product Coordinator, Revel Kunz, many more volunteers throughout the community have helped make this event a reality. Students at Chief Maquinna Elementary School, York House School, Churchill Secondary, Prince of Wales Secondary, Van Tech Secondary, Little Flower Academy,  and many more helped sew the stockings and knit scarves. Canada Trust, Carrie Wheeler Talent Management, and BC Hydro have been collecting donations of skin care, makeup, nail, dental, body, and hair care products to fill the stockings with. Other donations include gloves and toques.

For more information about donating product, snacks or money, please contact Caroline MacGillivray at info@beautynight.org. Media welcome. Beauty Night’s 7th annual stocking drive will be collecting new hair, nail, skincare, dental care, gloves and socks before December 1st.

At Beauty Night, we have been thinking about Christmas since July! During the warm summer months, many a afternoon was spent in brain storm sessions with Laura Mah, Blair Lockhart, Nancy Black, Revel Kunz, Christie Gray and Tiffany Telford. The questions we kept asking were:

We have been doing the annual Xmas stocking drive for 8 years, what is working well?

What do we want to change?

How can we get more community members involved?

How do we get the message out?

How do we know if we meet the needs of the community?

What worked well was the dynamic community response to the Xmas Drive.  Seniors, industry professionals, parents, children, youth and tweens wanted to contribute their time, energy, money and resources. Through word of mouth and positive media coverage this event has more volunteers wanting to get involved.

To increase word of mouth, Christie and I spent several afternoons with Knit Fit volunteers. Our training sessions included:

• Social media training. How to use facebook, twitter and word press to share their stories of volunteering
• Christie Gray created accounts for the volunteers who were interested in blogging. They have been contributing their stories on this blog about the Knit Fit and Stocking Drive.
• Board member, Bill Nevison created a video of last year’s Xmas Stocking Drive celebration and posted it on You Tube. We encouraged the volunteers to use the video to show people what we do. People get 90% of their information from what they see and 10% from what they hear. Sometimes pictures work well – especially seeing the distribution of the stockings and scarves.
• Public Speaking. I have heard that some people fear having to speak in front of people more than death. The volunteers prepared a speech about Knit Fit and Stocking Drive. Like monologues, we worked through the speeches. We worked on the key messaging, breath work, completing the thought and the writing. We work-shopped the speeches to make sure each speech felt like it sounded like the person who was delivering the speech.
• Policy & Procedures. Together we discussed leadership techniques and guidelines for working with children and peers. We discussed how to create a safe and enjoyable space for volunteers to feel empowered and become actively engaged in the projects we are creating. Working together, we came up with some fantastic ideas and put them into motion.

What we are doing is working. Last weekend when Beauty Night Society volunteer, Denise Von Gorkum and I took several Beauty Night participants to the Models of Inspiration Filmathon, we ran into one of the parents of our Knit Fit volunteers. She thanked me for being a good role model for her daughters and their friends. She asked if we needed more volunteers for our Kids Club program. She offered to drive the girls who wished to volunteer to and from our location.

I am thrilled that people want to get more involved with the programming. This week we have been having meetings with volunteers and community members who want to offer other programs for our participants. Digital story telling, inner beauty boot camp, blogging, yoga classes and nutrition classes are some of the program options we are considering. While we continue to create opportunities for our participants, we keep the line of communication open with our participants and community partners. We want to make sure what we are offering is what the women want and that starts with asking for feed back.

Thanks to DJ Joe, our participant facilitator we have been able to ask for feed back from our participants.  The general consensus is positive. Thanks to DJ’s constant queries, we are making some adjustments in our times and days for programming to make sure we are giving the women what they want.

The participants love the concept of joy and celebration. We have managed to include that in our regular programming. This past week’s programming included Beautilicious Halloween Celebration, Mom & Tot pumpkin carving sessions and pumpkin fitness classes. Through innovation and constant feedback, we continue to evolve our programming as we work together with our contributors, volunteers and participants.

As for our Xmas Activities, the women love the stockings and the Knit Fit scarves.  What they would like to see is a way they can help with the planning. We have started inviting participants to our stocking cutting sessions. Although the participants have not attended these sessions, they seem to enjoy being asked.

Volunteers from York House School, Churchill Secondary, Kwatlan College – Fashion Design Program, Van Tech Secondary, Little Flower Academy, and individual sewers have stitched up stockings. Stocking Coordinator, Blair Lockhart has been collecting the sewn stockings and dropping them off to groups of children to decorate them. Sparks (5-7 year olds – before Brownies), Brownies and Girl Guides are getting together to decorate and in some cases fill the stockings.

Last year Revel Kunz opened up her home to the Rangers (one of groups of children who sewed and decorated stockings). The Rangers spent one Monday evening filling 130 stockings! By encouraging children and youth to get involved, I believe it helps them understand that we can impact someone’s life. When we work together, we can change the world.

I hope you enjoy the Halloween festivities. Stay tuned for our Xmas Wish List for our 8th Annual Xmas Stocking Drive.