Business & Tech
Local Salon Partners with Soldier Socks
Reveal Hair Salon is collecting tube socks, baby wipes, and other essential items to make life a little easier for troops overseas through Soldier Socks.
On July 23, Reveal Hair Salon began collecting items for soldiers stationed in the Middle East through Soldier Socks, a subsidiary of START Now! Inc. To kick off the collection, the salon donated 20% of the day’s earnings to the organization on July 23. The salon is now serving as a drop-off location for donations to the Stamford-based non-profit.
“I have a client that is friends with Chris Meek, [the founder of Soldier Socks], and I mentioned that I wanted to do a fundraiser, something to help the community, but especially something to help the troops,” Maria Castellucci, owner of Reveal Hair Salon, said.
In 2009, Meek, Scott Duffy, and Colleen Grimm became aware that the soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq were lacking some basic essentials – namely tube socks and baby wipes.
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Since that time, Soldier Socks has shipped over 30,000 pounds of items to troops overseas and partnered with local businesses and organizations including Hope Street Pharmacy, New Balance of New Canaan, and the UPS Store in Norwalk. The Stamford Police and Fire Departments have also held sock drives. At the end of the first week of collecting, Reveal Salon's drive is off to a great start.
“The donation box is overflowing — we have to empty it to make more room,” Castellucci said. “Clients are dropping things off every day.”
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In addition to tube socks, they will be collecting baby wipes, sunscreen, lip balm, hand warmers, instant coffee, music, books, magazines, movies, hot cocoa, beef jerky, pens, and notebooks.
“Someone said to me, “There are women in the service too, and I said, “If I were wearing those boots, I’d still want heavy socks!”” Castellucci said.
This is the first time Reveal Hair Salon has worked with Soldier Socks, but not the first time they have found charitable causes through their clients. They are also collecting for a client who will swim Cayuga Lake in Ithaca, New York to support hospice care.
The inside of the salon is decorated with local artists’ work and since they began the program last October, every artist exhibited has begun as a client of the salon.
Reveal Hair Salon will be collecting items through September.
