The pictures cannot capture the buzz in the room preceding the shaving moments for 11 willing volunteers on Oct. 16. After collecting donations for the Look Good, Feel Better (LGFB) program and setting the stage for the first-ever Creative Tables event with no tables, Darlene Olsen and her entire crew went live on FB to share the fundraising efforts with the public.
Shannon Shakotko met people coming in with her amazing smile while she moderated the evening and kept track of every person in attendance for contact tracing, offered masks and hand sanitizer. Robyn Ririe and Cindy Kolenz worked diligently, calculating incoming funds and creating spreadsheets to forward to the LGFB program.
Professional hair stylists Amy Geiger from Salon 206 and Alicia Brown from New Dimension Hair Studio in Carlyle, and Katie Walter from Color Me Crazy in Arcola, gave their time to be a part of this great event. All three stylists had only good things to share about their businesses being back up and running after the initial COVID shutdown and they were happy to be a part of this event.
Addressing the online crowd just as she would in person, Olsen shared the LGFB story and had Leisa Grimes and Nicole Currie explain the impact being a part of this over the years has had on their lives. Both tears and laughter echoed in the hall as each one sat down to be shaved. Darlene personally interviewed each one as their hair fell to the ground. Not one person had not been affected by cancer in some direct or indirect way. With regard to this event, the comments on the live feed and to Olsen privately were a resounding ‘thank you for doing this’ from some of the women fighting cancer right now.
In previous years, Creative Tables has utilized the help of Arcola Daycare and has shared a portion of the proceeds to help their centre, but with that being impossible this year, 100 per cent of the proceeds will go to the Look Good, Feel Better program. The Creative Tables evenings have raised enough money to average around $20,000 per year for LGFB, but this year’s total blew Olsen away.
“Oh my God!” was all she could say as the numbers came rolling in Thursday night. The volunteers participating this year raised over $37,000 for the program.
Being able to encourage and bring out the best in people has always been something Olsen loves to do, “…but this was not about me,” she said. “These people went above and beyond and did this. I could have never done this alone.”
Having their heads shaved were Olsen, Currie, Grimes, Auldene Craig, Patti Baumgartner, Deb Wallace, Amber Evans, Ty Currie, Joel Mryglod, Keegan St. Marie and Mike Parker.
Hats off to all the volunteers and to all who donated to Creative Tables this year.
For more photos of the Creative Tables event, please see the Observed At page.
