FSJ Women’s Resource Society received more than $3K from Hair Bin

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The Fort St. John Women’s Resource Society has received a $3,200 donation from Hair Bin. 

On May 30th, The Hair Bin Salon and Barbershop celebrated its 40th anniversary by offering haircuts, facial waxing and a BBQ by donation. 

Estefania Albornoz, manager of fundraising and community engagement for the Women’s Resource Society, said: “During the day, all those activities combined have collected $3,200, and they gave us the money the same day.”

The Women’s Resource Society will be using the donation towards an accessibility project. 

She said: “We need to change the way people can access our buildings.” 

Currently, the Women’s Resource Society building has stairs in the front and ramps at the back. 

“The problem with the ramps in the back is they are not connected to our main services, so [for] people with disabilities, it’s extremely hard for them to access our building and our store,” she explained. 

The society will begin collecting funds from various sources to make the building accessible. It will use funds from the donation and the side-by-side off-road vehicle raffle toward this new project. 

Albornoz said: “We’re going to start a series of activities that go towards [the] project, which is very expensive.” 

The society has been trying to secure funding for at least three years to make its building accessible. 

“We have to prove we have some funds already to receive more from other sources,” she added. 

She said the society applied to the Enabling Accessibility Fund, requesting for $125,000 and received a response from them last week. 

“We were asked for at least $18,000; however, that number is very tricky because they’re asking that money based on quotes we sent three years ago, and we’re pretty sure if we’re going to build those ramps now, [they] are going to be way more expensive, so we have to raise a lot more to be able to complete the project,” Albornoz explained. 

She estimated the society will need to collect $18,720 from other sources. 

The society hopes to raise at least $10,000 from the raffle, and Albornoz said she will have to come up with a full plan of activities. 

When asked if she has a message for the Hair Bin, she said the society is “incredibly grateful” for being chosen as the recipients for he donations and called the salon “great partners and supporters.” 

“We also want to thank all the community that showed up and donated, they were very generous…sometimes, they donated even twice the value of a normal haircut, just to support the fundraiser. So we are very grateful [to] everyone involved.”