BY ALEXA GIOVANELLO • DAILY RECORD • May 6, 2009 It’s not unusual for a person giving back to the community to come away
feeling good but a Tuesday event in Morristown also left them looking good. The customers of Aura Salon and Spa were treated to a free haircut after making a minimum $20 donation to Homeless Solutions Inc. “Everyone here likes to give back to the community. We know a lot of businesses in town. It’s a nice thing to do to help out an organization like Homeless Solutions,” said Aura staff member, Emily Schmitt. The salon often gets requests for and provides gift baskets to various charities but this was the first time it had pulled off something this big. “We were approached by Aura and they said they sometimes do fundraisers of this type,” said Pam Palumbo, the development director at Homeless Solutions. “They were very impressed with us and the work that we do so they wanted to do one for HSI.” Homeless Solutions, Inc. is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization that has helped those in need for 25 years. It began as a 14 bed emergency shelter, completely run by volunteers.
“When people are in shelter, we provide skills, curriculum classes like budgeting, debt reduction, parenting skills, house-hunting skills, and managing your money,” Palumbo said. “We also provide transportation, meals, and connect our residents to available services in the community like drug and alcohol awareness.”