9 years ago, Caroline MacGillivray held the first Beauty Night at WISH Drop in Centre in Vancouver, BC. 14 volunteers took care of 73 women who attended the event. Many of the attendees live in poverty and experience violence. The opportunity to be in a safe space is something that is valued. The opportunity to be treated with dignity and respect made them feel good.

What started off as a special Christmas make over party, became a way to reintroduce touch to victims of violence. When attendees saw the physical change, they started to believe other types of change were possible. They attended literacy classes to show off their freshly painted nails, visited the health clinics to talk about how good they felt and walked out with an extra bounce in their step.

Working directly with the attendees, helped change the perception of many of our volunteers. One of our volunteers told us, “I go past these women every day on the bus but I don’t see them. Tonight I laughed and hugged so many of them. I can’t go back to not being able to see them.”

Last night we celebrated Beauty Night Society’s 9th birthday in Vancouver & Prince George. In Vancouver, the festivities started off with Christmas caroling. Volunteers, participants & their children sang Christmas tunes while creating Christmas cards. Thanks to accessing karaoke via youtube.com, we were able to get everyone singing and dancing.

Women and children gathered around the table with their children cutting and pasting ribbon to card stock. Womyn’s Gym coordinator, Tyla Flexman helped the women find stickers & pens as they sifted through the mountain of art supplies. Through words and art they found different ways to say thank you on paper. These cards were given to many of our volunteers.

Thanks to sponsorship through Liberty Wines & the the creative genius of Stacey Dallyn, the Beauty Night room was transformed into a winter wonderland. Wood land creatures sat under a White Christmas tree. Decorated in silver and gold, the words Beauty Night leapt out the fluffy snow that coated the walls.

Founding vice president of Beauty Night Society, Carly Teng was on hand as a roaming photographer. Carly captured pictures of the festivities of the evening. When our photography team was stuck in traffic, Carly stepped in and began to snap pictures of the women & Santa Claus.

Beauty Night board member, Dave Dickson’s eyes twinkled like St. Nick as women & children posed with him. Ten year old, Santa Helper, Katie Dalinghaus smiled pretty for the camera as she handed out the Nancy Black designed Xmas stockings to the women and children.

Stuffed to the brim with warm gloves, tooth brushes, dental care products, skin care, hair care, and body care products, the brightly coloured stockings Katie handed to the women. Like the first Beauty Night makeover event, the stockings contents came from stocking drive from individuals, churches, and businesses that wanted to contribute to Beauty Night’s 7th annual Xmas stocking drive. Led by Stocking Coordinator, Blair Lockhart, BC Hydro, TD Canada Trust, Ch2M Hill and Carrie Wheeler Talent Management and many more collected monies and products for us to fill those stockings.

Hundreds of high school students from York House, Little Flower Academy, Prince of Wales Mini School, Van Tech Secondary, Churchill Secondary School, Kwantlan College and many members of our community stitched the stockings. 5 – 7 year olds in sparks & brownie troupes decorated the stockings with their own personal flair.

Photographers Bruce & Sarah Culver set up the shots. Beauty Night volunteers & participants mugged for the camera. In the Beauty Night room, Tiffany Telford led the make over program. Carol Hogan, Ella Bak, Olivia Cammie, Meagan Stowe, Denise Van Gorkom, Margo Dalinghaus, and Amanda offered make up lessons, hair styling, manicures, mini massages and reiki.

Under the guidance of Kids Club coordinators, Alexa Fox and Sophia Hughes, women and children continued to create cards and occasionally break into a game of “jingle” tag.

While all the laughter- filled activity filled the room, Wendy Shuen and her volunteers bustled from room to room offering delectable goodies to the Beauty Night participants & volunteers. Almond cookies, fruit cake and mouth watering capicino chocolate biscuits satisfied our taste buds and our stomachs.

Throughout it all, DJ Joe, Tyla Flexman, Stacey Dallyn, Margo Dalinghaus, and Tiffany Telford bustled around making the event run smoothly.

Before the women headed out the door, Katie Dalinghaus gave them scarves created by Knit Fit Volunteers. Over 300 scarves were created by students from Elementary schools and High School students around the lower mainland. Spearheaded by Knit Fit founder & program coordinator, Laura Mah, hundreds of youth, seniors and children developed leadership skills and created scarves to keep people warm as they headed out into the snow.

In Prince George, our Beauty Night makeover event took place at Elizabeth Fry Society. Belly dance and self defense classes were held while women were offered make up application, hair styling, mini facials, manicures and much more.

Tonight – in Vancouver, we continue our celebrations at BC Women’s Hospital. Tiffany Telford, Ella Bak, Tyla Flexman, Caitlin Naylor and Lindsay McMillian will be handing out Xmas stockings and offering our makeover programming to the women in Fir Square.

As we head towards the end of the year, we have a few more events this week. In Toronto, the Xmas stockings & makeover program runs of December 17th – while Vancouver volunteers and contributors celebrate Beauty Night Society’s 9th Birthday on a Boat.

Beauty on the Boat enbarks at 7pm on December 17th. An evening on the sea with the music of Greg Cockerill and evening jaunt along the Vancouver coast. Tickets are $50 – proceeds to Beauty Night Society. For more information, please call 778-885-4526 or events@beautynight.org.

* For those who still have contributions to give, we are still handing out Xmas stockings and scarves on Xmas eve. Please contact us at info@beautynight.org.

Beauty Night Makeup Artist Volunteer, Ella Bak poses with DJ JoPurity and Diane

When we asked Beauty Night Society (BNS) volunteer and participants what they would like to experience, celebration and joy was something that everyone wanted. On October 26th, we put our Halloween committee’s concepts into action. Our decorating committee (participants, volunteers & board members) came in early to set the stage for the event to follow.

Cob webs, orange and black streamers adorned the ceiling, drawers, and walls of the room.  The buzz of excitement filled the entire centre. Together our decorating committee worked together to create an environment of fun that our make over volunteers could still work within.

Make up Artists Tiffany Telford, Ella Bak and Amanda Gangoso met the requests of our volunteers and participants. Hairdresser, Gary Smith created hair for “Mili Cyrus” to zombies, vampires and many more. At our nail station, Margo Dalinghaus and Kate created glamour girl nails as easily as claws for the various types of claws that people wanted.

Participant Facilitator, DJ Joe and Kerry Parsons filled the cups with hot tea while Stephanie Scott and photographer, Aaron Chung offered chocolate treats to participants who wanted to pose for our Halloween photo shoot. Posing with their children, with their friends, the women playing in front of the camera. “Aaron Chung creates a safe space for the women to enjoy being captured on film. Together with our amazing group of volunteers, participants and board members – our Beauty Night Society (BNS) celebrations are a pleasure for all involved!” explains National Executive Director and Founder, Caroline MacGillivray.

Thanks to Make Over Program Facilitator, Tiffany Telford, the children included cookie decoration as part of their activities in our Kids’ Club activities. Kids’ Club Program Co-ordinators, Alex Fox and Sophia Hughes supervised the decoration of bat shaped cookies as well as creating Halloween Masks. In the past two months, Hughes and Fox have worked together to create a fantastic program geared towards our participants’ children.

“Originally Katie Benjamin (Founder of Womyns Gym) wanted to offer child care for our Womyns Gym program participants. When we moved Womyns Gym from Tuesday and Thursdays to Monday and Wednesdays, I felt we needed to offer child care to our other program participants’ children. It wouldn’t be fair to only have it for one program. Alexa and Sophia have created a program that the kids can call their own. I am thrilled to have such amazing program coordinators. When I asked if we could create program to foster healthy self esteem and incorporate 20 minutes of physical activity every hour, Alexa and Sophia went above and beyond what I asked for. I know Kids’ Club is a huge benefit to the kids and to their parents – who participant in our other programming.”

Although we planned pumpkin carving and face painting as part of our Mom & Tot Nutrition program, the children were included in the photo shoot and face painting during the festivities on the 26th. Some of the children came dressed in costumes as did our volunteers. The rooms were filled with kangaroos, cats, vampires, zombies, and witches.

For those who did not bring costumes, Denise Van Gorkum and Amanda played fairy godmother. There women and children created magic wands, crowns, necklaces and witch hats. The opportunity to create their own costumes was incredibly fun and empowering. Watching faces filled with dejection due to forgetting a costume change to delight as they created their own was heart warming.

We were thrilled to have Womyns Gym volunteers get cat noses & whiskers or moustashes painted on their faces before training the women. We were thrilled to welcome Katie Gove from Telus’ Community Giving to our festivities. Beauty Night Society’s Womyns Gym is a proud recipient of Telus Community Giving.

The only dark spot in the evening was the fact that some of the numbers were down. When we followed up with participants the following evening, concerns of swine flu kept some of our participants at home. Although we would have loved to have seen more of our participants (we had about 25 participants throughout the entire night), we are glad that they are abiding by health policies that Beauty Night Society has shared with volunteers and participants. Rest and time to heal is vitally important during the cold and flu season!

Huge thanks to all of our volunteers, community partners – especially the PHS Life Skills Centre, Telus Community Giving, and of course our participants! When we work together, we can make a huge impact in our communities!