Beauty Night National Executive Director and Founder, Caroline MacGillivray chats to Life on Purpose Network about how Beauty Night got started.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAFRnLa-yhc[/video]
Wish List
November 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment
In 9 years, the award-winning non-profit program has provided 10,000 makeovers to marginalized women and youth in Vancouver, Prince George, and Toronto. Beauty Night Society’s Monday makeover night on December 14th will include some North Pole notables—Mrs. Claus and her elves handing out Christmas stockings designed by Nancy Black. “This is the seventh year of our annual stocking drive,” says Caroline MacGillivray. “on December 14th, we will be handing out 600 Xmas stockings and 500 scarves in Toronto, Prince George and Vancouver.”
Typically, Beauty Night Society’s Monday makeover night at the PHS Life Skills Centre in Vancouver unites an impressive roster of Lower Mainland volunteers. Hairdressers, makeup artists, estheticians, massage therapists, plus many more volunteers join forces to offer services for the women.
Carrie Wheeler Talent Management, BC Hydro, and TD Canada Trust have been collecting donations of skin care, makeup, nail, dental, body, and hair care products to fill the stockings with. Other donations include gloves and toques. Beauty Night Knit Fit founder and program coordinator, Laura Mah have been offering knitting clinics to children in our communities. By knitting the community together, Beauty Night Knit Fit volunteers have knitted hundreds of scarves to hand out with the stockings.
Beauty Night Society Birthday party will also be making spirits bright for both volunteers and their makeover subjects with Christmas movies and other Xmas goodies. “This event is a tremendous community effort! Hundreds of volunteers have contributed thousands of hours to make this event special,”says MacGillivray, “Since the summer months, we have been cutting stockings and knitting scarves.”
The community has kicked in to help. Spearheaded by Beauty Night’s Stocking Coordinator, Blair Lockhart, designer, Nancy Black, Beauty Night Knit Fit’s Laura Mah and Product Coordinator, Revel Kunz, many more volunteers throughout the community have helped make this event a reality. Students at Chief Maquinna Elementary School, York House School, Churchill Secondary, Prince of Wales Secondary, Van Tech Secondary, Little Flower Academy, and many more helped sew the stockings and knit scarves. Canada Trust, Carrie Wheeler Talent Management, and BC Hydro have been collecting donations of skin care, makeup, nail, dental, body, and hair care products to fill the stockings with. Other donations include gloves and toques.
For more information about donating product, snacks or money, please contact Caroline MacGillivray at info@beautynight.org. Media welcome. Beauty Night’s 7th annual stocking drive will be collecting new hair, nail, skincare, dental care, gloves and socks before December 1st.
Giving Thanks
October 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment
It’s that time of year for Canadians where we gather with our family and friends and reflect upon what we are thankful for. This is the time to acknowledge the positive aspects and influences in your life.
Beauty Night Society has many wonderful people to thank, for honestly without your support we wouldn’t be here. I am also going to give a huge thank you to Caroline for all of her very hard work, dedication and the love she puts into the organization. Iam thankful for being able to work with our wonderful clients and see just how thankful someone can be for something as simple as a hair cut. It reminds me of just how lucky I really am, and that everyone can make a difference.
What it is that you are thankful for?
Beauty Night Programming – Week of Sept 28
September 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Beauty Night Programming Sept 28 2009 – Oct 4 2009
Caroline and Dawn
We have another week full of great activities.
- Tonight, September 28, we have our regular Beauty Night makeover session at the Lifeskills Centre. We are in need of hairdressers, if you are a hairdresser and have been wanting to come out, tonight is the perfect night!
We are also having a volunteer orientation session tonight at 5:30 for those who are interested. If you’ve always wanted to know more about Beauty Night, and to see how you can help, we would love for you to come see what we’re about. The orientation will also be at the Life Skills Centre (412 E Cordova).
Children’s Programming will also be occuring so that the mommies can fully relax while being pampered. Spread the word! - Tuesday, September 29 – Stroller Disco! This is a super fun way for moms to get fit while bonding with their child.
- Wednesday, September 30 - Closed Board Meeting
- Thursday, October 1 - Womyn’s Gym Training
- Sunday, October 4 – Stocking Cutting Session – we are in need of people to help sew, cut stockings and knit scarves and more. If you’re interested in coming out, please email info@beautynight.org. If you click on this button, it will add the event into your google calendar for you!
We are still in need of fabric and wool for our stockign drive. If you are not able to help in that way, perhaps consider donating some funds to help our programming. Or your valuable time!
We love to hear feedback, what you would like to see featured on the blog, ideas you have for programs…even if you would like to suggest areas we could improve on, we always love to hear from you!
Happy Monday everyone!
New Christmas Stocking Design!
September 24, 2009 By 4 Comments
I’m really excited to be part of the Christmas stocking design again this year for Beauty Night.
Last year I did a boot with a heel and thought of going in a new direction. That’s where the idea came for a more feminine looking stocking.
Beauty Night Stocking 2009 Pattern
I’m was trying to go a an elegant foot in a panty hose idea but that may have gotten lost when the size was made much bigger than the average ladies leg. hahaha
We’ve had 2 cutting sessions with fabrics donated by local Vancouver residence. We started by transfering the original pattern onto manila and made 6 patterns. It was great having everyone busy at their own section tracing and cutting away. We had a couple of people take turns ironing the material as well. We decided to bundle them in sets of 10 making it easier to keep track of how many and to give them out to sew. I sewed up a few at the end of the day so that we could have samples for the students to see.
Beauty Night Stocking 2009 before they are sewn
The following cutting session we didn’t have as much fabric but somehow managed to get about 80 stocking cut from what we had. There were lots ladies helping which made the day go by much quicker. We’re at around 300 stockings already cut, just waiting to be sewn.
With new fabric donations coming in this week we are all getting together again this weekend to have an other cutting session. Stay tuned for some photos of all of us at work so you can keep track of the whole process!
Beauty Night Stocking 2009
