BLAIR, NEBRASKA (2025 January 1, Wednesday)
Don Harrold, Writer / Editor
blairtoday@mail.com – Facebook
When the holiday season arrived in Blair in 2024, three local salons joined forces to ensure no senior resident would be forgotten. Santa’s Partners for Seniors, spearheaded by Ahead of the Curve Salon and joined by The Darling Room and Hair Designs Unlimited, successfully coordinated holiday gifts for over 200 seniors across Washington County’s care facilities.
The program’s roots run deep in the community’s heart. “It’s a perfect storm of events that just made creating Santa’s Partners for Seniors the right thing for Ahead of the Curve Salon to do. Our salon and clients truly enjoyed participating in a similar program before it was discontinued in 2020,” explains Bradley Swartwood of Ahead of the Curve Salon. “Every holiday season since then we’ve been asked if there was something like that to participate in. That told me that there was still a desire for the community to give back to those that can sometimes be overlooked.”
The initiative’s emotional foundation was laid during the pandemic. “Through community connections Breanna and I also had the opportunity in November of 2020 to step up and help Crowell Memorial home. We did free haircuts for the residents most of which hadn’t had haircuts in almost 9 months due to the pandemic,” Swartwood recalls. “Between the 2 of us we interacted with over 50 residents on our days off. The deep emotion we felt for these residents that were dealing with loneliness that I’ve never seen before. After every day volunteering there I went home in tears from the inability to do more. 4 years later that experience is still very fresh in my mind.”
The program’s success relied heavily on existing relationships. “Through our chair we have direct connections with upper management in 3 out of the 4 senior facilities in Washington County. This made organizing the new program so much easier than if we had to reach out blindly to make a connection,” says Swartwood. “I then reached out to my stylists friends in our community asking for their help to expand our reach. Many of these stylists have stepped up in the past to help me with other charity events – fund raising cut-a-thons, free cuts for kids, etc. Knowing the giving nature of most stylists I knew that we’d come together to make this a success.”
The community’s response exceeded all expectations. “I was still blown away with how quickly a small handful of stylists with amazing clients could get over 200 seniors adopted! In less than 3 weeks we had everyone adopted! We even managed to get even the last minute residents adopted! Even more shocking to me was that we also had 100% of the gifts returned to us to be delivered… That made the last minute details so much easier to handle.”
The impact was immediately visible. “The incredible generosity of the community was overwhelming!” Swartwood shares. “Even down to the very personalized wrapping of the gifts the amount of love and care went into all of this was so touching. The hand written cards, cuddly stuffed animals, and beautiful ribbons that were used really showed the spirit of the holidays. Seeing the smiles on the faces in the pictures we received will definitely be something I cherish for a long time.”
The experience transformed perspectives on community giving. “When reading or watching the news it can often times seem like there’s a lack of caring in the world, but being a part of this event has renewed my faith that overall people truly do want to help out and spread love,” reflects Swartwood. “I can’t speak for everyone, but I know that for my business partner Breanna and I, the excitement we felt and heard from both our clients who participated and the photos we’ve seen of the actual gift giving was so good for the soul.”
Looking ahead to 2025, the program aims to expand. “Because of the incredible response in getting the seniors adopted so quickly we still had about 4 weeks of the holiday season left. During these weeks we were contacted several times a day looking to participate. That tells me we can easily expand our program next year to brighten even more senior’s holiday season,” Swartwood explains. “We plan on reaching out to the in-home care companies in Washington county to see how many residents are in their programs. With any luck we can add all of those seniors to the program. We’ve also been contacted by another local salon excited to participate.”
The program’s growth brings new challenges. “The amount of gifts to sort, organize, and store was a bit daunting so we’re already on the look out for a larger place to use for temporary storage next year. Finding a place large enough with very easy access to load/unload may take a bit but I have faith the community will come up with a successful solution.”
Success relied heavily on coordination. “Without the amazing teamwork from the other salons that participated the program wouldn’t have been successful,” Swartwood notes. “As a creative lot sometimes organization doesn’t come naturally but everyone did a really great job of keeping track of who had been adopted by which client and if the packages had been returned. Without that level of teamwork I’m sure someone unfortunately would have accidentally got overlooked. We’re already coming up with new ways to make this more streamlined for next year.”
For those interested in participating in the 2025 program, watch for announcements from Ahead of the Curve Salon, The Darling Room, Hair Designs Unlimited, and the newly joining salon partner. Based on this year’s response, early involvement will be key to securing an adoption opportunity.
