PASSION PROJECT

Cancer Survivor Beauty and Support Day will turn 20 years old on June 6, and salons and spas around the country will be participating.

BY MITCH HURST THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

Gordon Salon in Highland Park will be giving out bottles of hand lotion on June 6 in celebrationof Cancer Survivor Beauty and Support Day.

Twenty years ago, Barbara Paget had an idea. The Highland Park resident, long a volunteer in the cancer unit at Highland Park Hospital (there’s a plaque acknowledging her role in creating the Arthur G. Michel Education and Research Fund at what is now NorthShore University HealthSystem), established Cancer Survivor Beauty and Support Day to provide support to those recovering from cancer.

In the early days, it was a matter of lining up local spas in Highland Park and along the North Shore to provide free services for a day—a haircut or mani/pedi or massage to survivors. Through Paget’s tenacity, Cancer Survivor Beauty and Support Day is now a national and international event, with hundreds of salons, beauty schools, and wellness centers participating.

The day was originally scheduled for the first Tuesday in December (Tuesdays are generally slower days at salons) but after a few years of snow getting in the way, Paget moved it to the first Tuesday in June.

This year’s Cancer Survivor Beauty and Support Day will be held on June 6.

Salons, wellness centers, and beauty schools participate in the day in different ways. Some put out an open call to survivors to book an appointments for a particular service. Others, such as many Great Clips franchises, ask employees to invite cancer survivors they may know to come in for a trim. This year, Gordon Salon in Highland Park is gifting bottles of hand lotion.

It's all part of an effort to acknowledge the challenges cancer survivors face and to provide a respite from their struggles. Paget says it started off as more of a social gathering, with survivors getting to know each other. She baked and brought cookies.

“After their service, they sat down together and everybody just started talking and sharing their experiences,” Paget says. “This is what I really wanted it to become. Then I thought, ‘I wonder if I could expand it more?’”

Expand it she did.

Paget started calling around to additional salons and lining up their participation. She met people on airplanes and trips around the country. She called Great Clips, and the next thing you know franchises throughout the country were on board.

Talking with Paget’s friends and partners in Cancer Survivor Beauty and Support Day, one clear message emerges—persistence. She won’t take “no” for an answer, and that’s why spas and beauty centers from coast to coast and Mexico have joined in.

“We were very happy to help her from the beginning and promote it to now 4,500 Great Clips salons throughout the United States,” says Jim Petrovich, who owns 21 Great Clips franchises in Illinois and Indiana. “It’s just a very personal experience to touch someone’s life a little bit and provide a ray of sunshine for someone going through those challenges. This was Barbara’s dream.”

Karra Hunter, Community Outreach Coordinator for Gordon Salon in Highland Park, says the salon’s participation is going on six years and it’s all about the company’s commitment to the local community.

“We feel compelled to do it because there are many cancers out there and people are going through different types of treatments,” Hunter says. “Recovery is different for everybody, and things have changed for them. It might be getting their hair done. They’re going to benefit from something no matter what.”

Hunter says the decision to provide survivors with free hand lotion this year instead of services came down to the difficulty with demand when so many appointments were already on the books. Gordon didn’t want to turn people away, so they came up with the idea of a free gift.

Paget’s friend Susan Maman, a real estate agent with @properties in Winnetka, says that in addition to persistence, another p word comes to mind when she thinks about what Paget has accomplished over 20 years—passion.

“She is so passionate about what she does, turning something local into international surely by her hard work and determination,”Maman says. “There’s no other word for this.”

Maman says Paget’s enthusiasm for Cancer Survivor Beauty and Support Day is infectious.

“It’s hard not to get excited because she so enthusiastic. It’s pretty tremendous,” she says. “Most people aren’t that passionate over something for a lengthy period of time, but every year is a new, exiting year for her for this cancer day.”

Cancer Survivor Beauty and Support Day is June 6. For more information or to see a list of participating salons, visit cancersurvivorbeautyandsupportday.org.