The Styling Company, a salon with locations in Sidney, Bellefontaine and Urbana, is providing certificates for free haircuts to about 200 children served by Head Start programming. The Make a Difference Day project marks the third community service project the Sidney salon employees have done in the past year.
Diana Seiber, the stylist and manager at the Sidney salon, worked with salon owner Virginia Densmore and Nicolette Winner, director of HandsOn West Central Ohio, to make these projects happen.
Seiber explained that she grew up doing community service projects.
“I was kind of raised that way,” she said. She remembers several community service projects that her youth group at First Church of God in Sidney participated in when she was a teen.
When she became manager of the Sidney salon, she began exploring ways the salon employees could participate in community service projects.
Seiber faced several challenges. The stylists worked different hours and had other commitments. As a manager, she was busy handling scheduling, time sheets and other managerial duties.
Last year, she and Densmore worked with Winner and HandsOn to brainstorm how the salon could participate in community service projects. Offering free haircuts seemed a logical choice.
For their first project, they offered free haircuts to volunteers who participated in International Volunteer Day in December.
In May, the Styling Company participated in a project that was a special cause for Seiber: helping animals at the Shelby County Animal Shelter. Those who donated pet food to the shelter received certificates for free haircuts.
For Make a Difference Day, the Styling Company is helping children. Children who participate in the HeadStart program and meet attendance goals will be given free haircut certificates to use Monday through Thursday for the two weeks following Make a Difference Day.
Make a Difference Day, a national day of community service held annually on the fourth Saturday in October, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
Winner said about 40 community service projects are planned in Miami, Darke and Shelby counties as part of this year’s Make a Difference Day.
Seiber is looking forward to participating in Make a Difference Day.
“It should be fun,” she said.
Do you know of someone who should be featured in Hereabouts? Send an email Beth Sears at sears@erinet.com or call her at (937) 448-0101.
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