By Mira Thomas
It was a cold Thursday night. I was on my way to Beauty Night at Raincity Housing in the Downtown Eastside formerly known as ‘Triage Emergency Services & Care Society’, a safe haven for many folks who need a place to go for basic supplies, food and health care. I walked past old buildings with paint peeling off the sides, a worn out street lamp flickered above me and broken glass lay strewn along the sidewalk.
In a neighborhood where homelessness, addictions, poverty and unemployment are very real barriers for people in the community, programs like Beauty Night provide a place for the women to come in and be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their life situation.
My responsibilities were to connect with the women each night, welcome them in as they are: tired, or exhausted, cheerful or restrained, and invite them to have their nails done. I would offer their tired hands a massage with scented lotions and engage them in a conversation, mostly about their day. Many of them were eager to talk, they enjoyed having someone there to listen to their ideas and dreams and goals for themselves. Most of the time, they just needed someone to tell them, “Hey, that’s a great idea! You should totally go for it!” or, “I can see you doing that! You would be amazing at it!”
One particular Tuesday night, I called Caroline (Executive Director and founder of Beauty Night) to see if she needed any help at our home location at the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre (DEWC). Not only was she thrilled, but she also asked me if I would be willing to do some facilitating that night. That night I had the pleasure of being in charge of the sugar hand-scrub station. I helped two young volunteers to prepare mixtures of olive oil, sugar and scented lotion to use on the women’s hands, who then carefully massage the moisturizing mixture into the women’s hands and up their arms. The grains of sugar would gently exfoliate their skin revealing the softest, smoothest, and radiant skin beneath. I loved seeing their interactions; the girls and the women that they served. Smiles were easily shared, a few laughs were exchanged and for a moment I stopped to think how tough it must have been for some of these women to trust the volunteers with hands they willingly held out, to allow someone to touch, and hold, and knead the stress out of their aching palms. I watched as one of the young volunteers pretended not to see the scars all the way up the inside of one lady’s arms and instead, looked at her and told her how beautiful her skin tone was! The woman beamed and tossed her head back laughing and said to her friend getting a back massage done only a few feet away from her, “You hear that Rose*? I’ve got good skin tone!”
Beauty Night’s mission is quite simple. It is to build self-esteem and change the lives of women and youth in poverty. During my three months volunteering I have witnessed exactly that. Every night when the women leave the centre, they leave more energized and motivated than when they came in. Walking into Beauty Night, what I thought I knew simply paled in comparison to the amount I have learned during my time with them.
