Photographer Ken Villeneuve brings Truth & Beauty Photos to Vancouver’s DTES Interurban Gallery to Raise Money for Beauty Night

Truth & Beauty: Photographs by Ken Villeneuve runs until Dec 7th at Vancouver’s InterUrban Gallery. Calendars featuring Ken’s photos are for avail for $10, proceeds will help Beauty Night meet the growing needs of impoverished women & youth.


Truth & Beauty: Photographs by Ken Villeneuve is on display at Vancouver’s InterUrban Gallery until December 7th. Ken Villeneuve created this collection of photographs over the past five years. The exhibit focuses on Vancouver’s downtown eastside, and on Beauty Night in particular. Ken has also included portraits from Something to Eat, a Place to Sleep, and Someone Who Gives a Damn, his documentary about homelessness.

“Don’t believe all the negative things you read and hear about the DTES, there are pockets of optimism and cheerfulness, and Beauty Night is one of them. This show was inspired by Beauty Night and all of the lovely people that attend,” says Ken.

Ken has generously created Truth & Beauty desk calendars featuring his photos with proceeds going to Beauty Night ($10 at InterUrban Gallery, cash only).

Beauty Night Society is celebrating its 13th year and 36,000th makeover for impoverished women and youth. Funds raised through the sale of Truth & Beauty calendars will help Beauty Night increase the number of makeovers provided each week from 250 to 300. “Currently we have 10 organizations on a wait list who would like us to deliver services to their participants. We are hoping to raise the resources we need to be able to meet the growing need,” says Beauty Night founder Caroline MacGillivray.

‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty’ - that is all ye know on earth, and all you need to know. -John Keats

InterUrban Gallery is located @ 1 East Hastings Street. Ken Villeneuve’s Truth & Beauty exhibit runs Wed to Sat (1pm-5pm) until December 7th, admission is free.

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Dignity Purefume by Smell This! Aromatherapy Raises Money for Beauty Night

On November 2nd, at the top of the With Dignity Masquerade Ball, we launched Dignity Purefume! The purefume was created by Smell This! Aromatherapy, and the price is $20 per bottle. From every bottle sold Smell This! is donating $10 to Beauty Night. The monies raised will help us to continue to meet the growing demand for Beauty Night services. To purchase Dignity purefume, please visit Smell This.

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Beauty Night Celebrates Giving 36,000 Makeovers at With Dignity Masquerade Ball on Nov 2nd

On Saturday November 2nd, 2013 Heritage Hall will play host to the inaugural With Dignity Masquerade Ball, a fundraiser to benefit local charity Beauty Night Society.

The evening will be a presentation of local art, fashion by Nancy Perreault Collections, pole and pin-up performances, a silent auction, and intriguing costumes. Donations will go to support the Beauty Night’s three programs which aim to help women and youth build self-esteem, live with dignity, and make positive lifestyle choices.

As a prelude to the night’s festivities, the day’s activities also aim to fundraise for the charity. From 11am to 6pm, the Hall will be open for the public to attend a forum called “Skin Salon.” There will be speakers and vendors relating to:
  • skin health
  • the ingredients in beauty, body and skin care products
  • corporate social responsibility
  • the importance of buying “clean” products
Special guest speaker is author and local women’s health advocate Lorna Vanderheaghe. Entry is by donation.

The concept for the event was the brainchild of two local entrepreneurs in the “clean” beauty industry: Arline Trividic (owner of
Smell This Aromatherapy, a local manufacturer of “clean” skin care products) and Estie Gonzalez (owner/operator of Derma Bright Clinic).
Beauty Night Society is celebrating its 36,000th makeover for impoverished women and youth. Monies raised will help them increase the number of makeovers given each week from 250 to 300. ”Currently we have 10 organizations on the wait list who would like us to deliver services to their participants. We are hoping to raise the resources we need to be able to meet the growing need,” says Beauty Night founder Caroline MacGillivray.
For more information on the event or to purchase tickets, please visit event brite
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$10 000 For Our Cause!

Team Beauty Night Member, Lily Mignault with one of our beautiful ladies at Beauty Night

Huge thank you to team beauty night member, Lily Mignault for being one of the top ten recipients of Telus’ Give Wherewe Live Contest. She submitted a photo of her volunteering at Beauty Night! We are thrilled to be her charity of choice. Every $24 makes it possible to help one of our ladies. The $10 000 Lily won will make a huge impact in our quest to serve 250 participants each week. Check out the contest’s video here.

 

“I am so grateful to have inspired and to be able to give $10,000 to an amazing charity Beauty Night Society . This organization helps build self-esteem and empower mothers, children, street youth, former sex-workers and women living in poverty. Mental illness, sexual violence, hunger and homelessness are a reality of many women living in Vancouver’s downtown east side. This organization brings women together to laugh, become friends, and feel connected to their community. By building their community and empowering these women, they can start believing that change is possible. Thank you so very much TELUS for your generous donation ! I am truly blessed and honored to be able to pass it on to Beauty Night Society. #givewhereyoulive ” - Lily Mignault

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What They Did for Beauty Night!

Our friends from Le Physique put themselves out there to raise money for our cause! During their Train the Trainer event, people bid the trainers to perform physical feat. Burpees, chin ups, spider walk, parkour and much more were some of the physical feats. Award for most unusual?

“My challenge was to spell supercalifragiliticexpialidocious with my feet (abs and hip flexors!!) while Shadow licked peanut butter off my head and face (he totally missed my nose and cheeks, said Le Physique owner, Nicole Yamanaka.

“Every $24 raised enables us to improve the life of one of our participants,” says Beauty Night Society, Founder, Caroline MacGillivray,”We are absolutely thrilled to have Le Physique trainers supporting our cause in such an innovative way.”

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Less Than Two Tickets to the Movies

On April 1st, our new Fiscal year began. Our goals this year are to serve 250 participants each week. By offering additional leadership training to our volunteer base of 500 volunteers, increasing our community partnerships and focusing on strengthening the ones we currently have, we aim to better serve our participants. Last year we served 10, 000 participants.

For $24, you can make a positive impact in a woman’s life. Less than two tickets to the movies.

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Beauty Night Volunteers & Supporters Make it Possible

Throughout the year, hundreds of men and women make it possible for us to offer programming 4 nights each week. Each week we serve 200 people. Last year we served 10, 000 people on an operating budget of $44, 845. Huge thank you to our volunteers, Vancouver Foundation, and our supporters for making this possible. 12 years, 26, 000 makeovers thanks to 500+ volunteers.
Beauty Night Volunteers take a moment to pose for a group shot on Dec 18th, 2012. Photo by the amazing Ken Villeneuve.
If you would like to be come a volunteer or make a donation, we would welcome your support. Thank you!

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Simply Spirit Author Donates 50% of December Sales

We are thrilled that Joseph Eliezer, Psychotherapist and Author of Simply Spirit: A Personal Guide to Spiritual Clarity, One Insight at a Time is donating 50% of the December sales of his book to Beauty Night Society. Simply Spirit has reached the #1 position in the self-help/spiritual category on Amazon.ca and has been embraced by the BC Cancer Society. Born from intuitive insights and written in quotation form, Joseph’s bestselling book has touched people worldwide.

“In many ways, [Simply Spirit] reminded me of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet… Its message too is both timely and timeless and befits an age where spiritual clarity is beckoned for.” – Robert Pereira, MD.

 

Photo of Joseph Eliezer’s Book Simply Spirit by George Moen

 

 

“I chose Beauty Night Society because their values resonate with me. They’re transparent; they do an enormous amount of work on a minuscule budget; their executive director, Caroline MacGillivray, works 24/7 to keep the project relevant; they recognize the efforts made by their army of volunteers; and, most importantly, they are dedicated to helping people. They focus on women and children who live in the DTES. Nowhere else in the country do we have so many impoverished people living in such a densely populated area.

 

The first position I ever held as a counsellor was working in the addictions field at Main and Hastings. It wasn’t pretty. I seldom came across support workers who lasted long in their positions. Connections with counsellors or other service providers didn’t happen often. Beauty Night has been serving the population for 12 years. It’s an award-winning charity, and the more I get to know them, the more I want to become involved.” - Joseph Eliezer on why he is donating 50% of the sales of his book Simply Spirit during December to our cause.

To purchase your copy of Simply Spirit, please click here.

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Santa’s Helpers Gear up for 12 Days of Xmas Campaign

During the holiday season, one of my favorite parts is watching community come together to spread joy. One of the ways we do that is through our 12 Days of Xmas Campaign. Fashion Designer, Nancy Perreault designs a stocking. Community members sew and decorate them.

Some of our Santa’s Helpers collect donations to fill the stockings and help deliver them to women and youth in shelters, 1st and 2nd stage housing, drop in centres and hospitals. From December 12-24th, volunteers dressed as elves deliver stockings and Christmas cheer.

Volunteer Paris Mallin started volunteering for Beauty Night with her mother, Tamara three years ago. For the 2nd year, Paris has asked her classmates at Ecole Sherwood Park to help. On December 3rd, Paris and her grade 3 class decorated stockings that will be filled by volunteers this weekend.

We’ve had hundreds of volunteers help sew, decorate and fill the stockings. Some of the volunteers are from York House, Carson Graham Secondary, Bal Moral Secondary, churches, girl guides and corporations. Here are some of the snap shots of our elves at Ecole Sherwood Park and the stockings they have decorated.

Paris Mallin and her classmates at Ecole Sherwood Park hold up the stockings they have decorated.

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Beauty For a Cause - Fundraiser!

On Thursday, November 8th Pink Tank Group is hosting Beauty For A Cause.
In other words, a Fundraising Beauty Night for our those who want to support our cause. Sukis Salon, Dermalogica, and Blanche MacDonald will be on hand offering beauty treatments to make you feel good.


Join us for a unique night of mingling and networking combined with all your favourite beauty services. Drink wine and connect while getting a blow out, a Dermalogica MicroZone Skin Treatment, an RMT back massage, a make-up touch up and a manicure. Find out first hand how it feels to help the women of the Downtown East Side through the magic of Beauty Night. 100% of the proceeds will go towards Beauty Night embracing the concept of “women helping women”.

To give you an idea of what our last beauty fundraiser was like, Natalie Langston covered the event for Novus’ City Lights.

To buy tickets, please click here.

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