While we count down to the 2011, we wanted to take a few moments to reflect on some of 2010′s high lights:

7 Beauty Night Participants Complete the Sun Run

Womyns Gym Program Coordinators Felicity Scott and Tyla Flexman trained 10 women for 10 weeks. Twice a week workouts got our participants out of the centre and walking and running through Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Thanks to online training from Sport Med BC’s Lynn Kanuka and sponsorship from the Vancouver Sun, Beauty Night participants were able to meet their fitness goals.

$45 000 investment in our life-makeover program ($15 000 per year) from Vancouver Foundation

Thanks to Vancouver Foundations on going support. Not only did they invest in our life-makeover program, they have also created different vehicles to help us spread the word about our mission: to build self-esteem and change lives. We were thrilled when we made the front cover of their Fall 2010 magazine that was distributed to over 30 000 subscribers of the Vancouver Sun. They created a video featuring Beauty Night in action (Photos by Aaron Chung and Ken Villeneuve).

Recipient of IABCBC (International Association of Business Communicators) Social Media Pro Bono Grant. Thanks to IABCBC Pro Bono grant, a survey was created. One of the key reasons for the survey was to see how we can communicate more effectively. The fact that many people (survey results still being tallied) did not know we had three streams of programming: make overs, wellness and life skills made us realize we needed to give people more information as to how we are building self esteem and changing the lives of women living in poverty. The current draft of our social media communications plan created by IABCBC is timely as we have been in the midst of a rebrand.

Rebrand. To celebrate our 10 year anniversary, our promotions and communications committees started asking how we have changed in 10 years. We realized our branding did not match who we are today. Thanks to graphic designers Heather Vince, Chenoa Gao, Ivana Capelletto, and Sheila Adams, changes have been made to our  print materials. Stay tuned for a revised website featuring our new branding in 2011.

Our print materials will be revised to give more details about the three streams of programming we offer.

10 Year Anniversary Celebration: 10 Years, 11 000 Life-Makeovers, thanks to 400 volunteers. Special thanks to IABCBC, PHS (Portland Hotel Society) Inter Urban Gallery, Adam Sutton, Tiffany Telford, Erin McConnell, Board members Stacey Dallyn and Fergus McCann creating such a wonderful event on December 15th.

Beauty Night is a community builder. During the course of the evening, we saw familiar faces and met new friends. Participants, volunteers, contributors, twitter friends, and our community partners came by to celebrate with us. The Beauty Night “trees” – Past, Present and Future” that our participants began on December 13th stood tall on the walls of the gallery. As you know, Beauty Night community members new and old drank in the collaborative art pieces and continued to add to them. Each guest was asked to trace one hand and write a Beauty Night memory. This memory was to be added to the Beauty Night past or present tree. They then would ask someone to trace their other hand, cut out the paper hand and write what they would like to see or how they would like to change the world through Beauty Night.

Spreading the Word. Extensive media coverage on and offline told people about our 10 year anniversary. Thanks to  IABCBC’s guidance and training we were able to reach more people for our Xmas stocking drive and invite many new faces and reconnect with old friends through twitter and facebook.  Miss 604, Ariane Designs, Lap Tops and Lipstick, Vancouver is Awesome, Hummingbird604, Al Etmanski and many bloggers told their readers about our cause. Special thanks to Helen Evans for updating our Beauty Night blog.  Through CTV, CBC, CityTV, Global TV, CKNW, News1130, CBC Radio, The Vancouver Courier, Vancouver Foundation Magazine we were able to reach more people. Xinhuanet, a publication and television station in China sent a camera crew to capture Beauty Night in action.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, the whole world is talking about us! Thanks to Canadian Press and Reuters, pictures of our life-makeover program have been picked up all around the world.

Xmas Stocking Drive: On Xmas Eve, over 30 people dressed up to hand out 1000 Xmas Stockings. The Downtown Eastside was bustling with community groups handing out food, hot chocolate and warm mittens. CTV captured a group of our volunteers during the afternoon. What was not on camera were the hundreds of volunteers that make this evening possible every year.

What started off as a group of 10 volunteers in fashion designer, Nancy Perreault’s studio cutting out the 2010 edition of our holiday stocking turned into a collaborative initiative. High school students (students from Eric Hamber Secondary, York House, Johnson Heights, Prince of Wales Mini, and many more) and community members sewed the stockings; children decorated the stockings (selected elementary schools include McBride, York House, Seymour Elementary, Grandview Elementary, girl guides, brownies and sparks groups). Companies such as BC Hydro (46 boxes of product and $800 cash), Canada Wide, Carrie Wheeler Talent Management, TD Canada Trust, and Blanche MacDonald Centre and many more spearheaded campaigns to collect new self care products to fill the stockings. London Drugs, Beauty Solutions, AG Hair Cosmetics, Lush Cosmetics and many more sponsored products to fill the stockings as well as stocked up our coffers for  programming 365 days per year. * Special thanks to Stocking Coordinator Blair Lockhart & Product Coordinator Revel Kunz.

Beauty Night Prince George Thanks to a partnership with New Caledonia College, Beauty Night was able reach 4 times the amount of women! Normally we hold our Xmas life makeover program in a shelter. This year – thanks to New Caledonia College, the shelters came to us. Spearheaded by Megan Wu, the participants of 4 shelters were able to spend the evening together. It was a great opportunity for women to connect and find out about other service providers and to celebrate the season with like minded individuals – hence creating a community.

Beauty Night Lipstick In commemoration of our 10 year anniversary, Islu Beauty created a vegan lipstick. $9 from each lipstick goes to Beauty Night. To date over $180 have been raised. Stay tuned for February when we do the official lipstick launch!