“Beauty Becomes You ~ Circles of Light” Letters Guidelines SPRING 2020
This initiative is inspired by the need to reach out and “touch” each other, both for senior adults, family caregivers and other individuals experiencing loneliness or needing uplifting words of encouragement. Beauty Becomes You (a 501(c) (3) charitable foundation normally provides beauty services to this population. In this time of separation and increased isolation, BBY is calling on volunteers from the beauty industry and beyond to take a few minutes for this project to affect your life and the life of others. Below are the steps to send a letter on behalf of this initiative as well as a letter template.
The difference between our initiative and others is that we want the senior to write back to you. This will inspire them and help increase their sense of self-worth and meaning and help create a special relationship that can go on beyond this period of ‘hibernation’.
Step 1. Please sign up on www.BeautyBecomesYou.org as a volunteer.
Step 2. Two Options:
A. 3x3x3: Once you sign on as a volunteer. You will be contacted by a BBY official. They will share our “Beauty Becomes You Senior Community Partners List” to see if someone in your community is already part of the program. We have many communities that are waiting for us to send letters to them. WE are asking everyone to write 3 letters and ask 3 friends to do the same. They will be sent to the BBY Senior Community Point Person who will send them to the Community Life Director.
B. Become a Senior Living Community Point Person- If there is no one in your community on our list yet, PLEASE volunteer to contact a nearby senior community, senior center, church with a program for seniors or your local Meals on Wheels program that would like to help boost HOPE for their residents, or community during this time. Then once we have your submission to become a Senior Living Community Point Person you can contact their Community Relations or Life Engagement directors and tell them that you are helping out a Beauty Becomes You initiative called ‘Circles of Light’ and want to send letters from you individually, your salon, spa, school, club, or organization, so they can disburse to their residents or participants in their program. Then you will add them to our Beauty Becomes You Senior Community Partners List for more letter writers to contribute.
Step 3. Once you receive confirmation that the SLC is interested:
- Report the name of the location, address and the contact person to Beauty Becomes You “Senior Community Partners List” Coordinator and then you will become a Beauty Becomes You Senior Living Community Point Person for that location.
PLEASE use the template below to write your letter.
Step 4.
Since you will not know the names of the people who to write to, please begin the letter with the salutation “Hello my friend,” and please close your note with the salutation, “Beauty becomes you.” These salutations have special meaning. My father Bob O’Neil, whose final words to me inspired the creation of this organization, always greeted people with “Hello, my friend,” even strangers. He did not know a stranger. Close your letter with “Beauty becomes you,” which means it is the things you do for others, that MAKE you beautiful inside and out.
To help ensure a return letter to you, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope with your letter.
If you are using a Senior Living Community from the BBY Senior Community Partner List, please send your letters to the person who is listed there as the “BBY Mail Manager” for that location. For the SAFETY of the seniors, they will be collecting between 12- 25+ letters to send in bulk to the Community Relations/Life Engagement Directors.
Step 5.
As a Beauty Becomes You volunteer, we hope you will offer a FREE service to them after the quarantine is over. If they utilize your free services, please let us know so we can post on the Beauty Becomes You FB page. To help boost your business after this hibernation period is over, We will also add you to our press release for your area.
Step 6. Please help us track who this project touches and we can help you boost your business by posting on our Beauty Becomes You FB page or BBY2006 Instagram.
- [Begin suggested letter template]Be creative, consider writing, drawing, or coloring and stickers, too.
Hello my friend,
- Tell them about an older adult who inspired you (If you haven’t told that person as well, tell them), or write something supportive from your heart.
- Thank them for writing back to you, or sending you a heart, flower or other support symbol if they cannot write.
- Include any personal notes you want to add.
They say if we want to feel better, the best way is to help someone else feel special. With what you are going through, you also need encouragement and through this request you are also giving them a sense of purpose and meaning that their letter matters to YOU. So, I hope you’ll write me back.
Beauty becomes you, YOUR NAME
[End letter template]
Envelope:
Address:
To: My Friend
Attention: (If you know the person’s name or if it is the activities/Community Relations director, please address it Attn. their name.)
Return Address:
Your Name
Beauty Becomes You- Circles of Light
Your address
To All,
We hope you’ll become an ongoing Beauty Becomes You volunteer, so we can continue doing good in your community long after the threat of the COVID-19 virus has passed.
We need to support each other ALWAYS, and we will always continue to support you through spreading the only GOOD virus…that of GOOD WILL.
There is NO greater gift than giving of one’s heart. Of course, a lot of people are going to appreciate more than ever, getting their haircut, their nails done and having a facial or massage, ourselves included. This is a time of opportunity for us all, a time to grow and become closer as a community. Please join us in our effort to TOUCH the hearts and souls of many until we can touch each other again!
Beauty becomes you,Alison
Alison Tara O’Neil, Founder of Beauty Becomes You, a charitable 501 (c) (3) foundation
L’Oreal Paris Woman of Worth
www.BeautyBecomesYou.org