I feel very grateful and blessed to have the opportunity to serve my community. Dress For Success had ten people sign up for the braiding workshop. However, scheduling issues arose and many of the participants couldn’t find the means to make it to the Dress for Success Boutique on that particular Saturday. All but one couldn’t make it to the braiding workshop.
That’s how I got to know Mariah, the only woman who managed to attend the workshop that day. I had a wonderful conversation with Mariah. I learned she had recently migrated from Ecuador and in search of work that’s why she had looked for an organization like Dress For Success.
She explained she was drawn to the workshop because of her three young daughters who are in need of the hair-care services the braiding workshop offered to teach. So I was motivated for the sake of her daughters to teach, despite the unexpected turnout. We spent a full three hours going through the lesson plan I had planned and explained everything in detail. I was so proud to see her improve, more and more throughout the process, and encouraged her along the way to keep going. She later mentioned that her main goal was to learn how to do stitch braids, but since she hadn’t learned how to cornrow yet, I suggested she start with cornrows to make stitch braids easier to master and recommended creators on YouTube who are beginner friendly for stitch braids. I also explained that if she got good enough, she could utilize her newly acquired skill for profit by marketing her work on social media and that could potentially sustain her.
Nearing the end of my time with Mariah my heart was full of gratitude and I still wanted to share this experience and supplies with the women who couldn’t attend the workshop. I imagined many things happening during the summer, in particular early back-to-school shopping, could impede their ability to show up that day. I chose to consult the director of programs if a rescheduling on Zoom was a possibility because I would be going back to Deerfield in two weeks. Unfortunately, she said it wasn’t a viable possibility because the likelihood of the people who didn’t come to the workshop coming to pick up the supplies from the boutique isn’t very high. With that, I returned to Mariah and gifted her the things she used during the workshop so she can continue to improve at home.
I returned home grateful that I had positively impacted at least one person’s life but I still desired to share this experience with more people. I thought about introducing the braiding workshop to my church, Hudson Church, and by the Grace of GOD, it aligned perfectly with our annual outreach festival. I talked to my Pastor and he was able to approve it. I had my own booth at the festival on September 6th. I believe that since the Lord has blessed me with this skill, the most natural thing to do is to use it to bless others as well. More than 1,500 people attended the festival to learn about GOD and celebrate His Goodness with free food, free drinks, free rides, free activities and free raffles.
The church outreach festival was very successful, and so was the braiding workshop. The outreach festival ran for five hours, interested individuals passed by and I was able to teach them on how to improve their braiding form. I realized most participants were challenged by “floating hands,” I call it. “Floating hands” refers to how far the braider is to scalp, if the braider isn’t close in proximity to the scalp, then the braid will awkward, and braiding will be unusually uncomfortable. I realized once when I told participants to braid closer to scalp, they were able to produce a beautiful braid with half the effort. I was especially happy for the little girl with the black T-shirt who wanted to learn how to cornrow for her sports events because her hair would get in the way. She didn’t know how to braid at all. She kept on improving by taking my advice. I think on her sixth try she produced an appealing braid. I just had to take a photo of it! I was really proud of her and all the other people who tried to learn how to braid because they persisted. Moreover, something I found a bit challenging was the language barrier, because I live in an area that is majority Latino I wasn’t able to communicate effectively with some of participants until a lady who was also a volunteer at the outreach festival volunteered to help me communicate with some of the participants. An hour before the event ended, we gave away the supplies and took the contact information of the braiding workshop participants. I plan to contact them in six months to learn about the long-lasting impact of the workshop (whether they took on braiding professionally or just use the supplies often). I’m very happy my grant came to fruition in this, unexpected but welcomed, manner. I’m grateful to God and the CSGC that made it all happen.
