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!

We had a great turn out of students and women from the community. The stations we had were nails, hair, and massage, make up, belly dancing and some crafts. At the hair station they we had cuts and styles. The ladies really enjoyed the belly dancing and the massages.

Big thanks to all the volunteers that came out to support this event. The ladies left happy and excited that they were able to attend his evening. It felt like a girl’s night where you meet new people and get pampered.

Megan Wu
Women’s Representative
CNC Students Union

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.

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.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCxO5debFEQ[/video]