At Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, love feels like a foot massage.
Last week, volunteers from the church and Aveda Institute Tucson turned the parish hall into a free spa for men and women who may not always have a happy holiday season.
Flickering candles and spa music with a Yuletide twist greeted about 80 guests who stopped by the church, 2331 E. Adams St., Tuesday for some TLC in the form of free haircuts, manicures, foot massages, makeovers or a visit to the church’s Healing Touch Clinic. Many visitors indulged in more than one service.
“To have women from the women’s shelter come in and be pampered like that, it feels like a luxury...” said Eric Carr, the main organizer and a founder of this recurring spa day. “It’s a luxury, and it’s not like we’re going to sit here and treat you like you’re some homeless person. We’re going to treat you like you’re at a spa, and they get professional services with zero judgment whatsoever.”
The church intends for the day to specifically serve those who can’t normally afford such services — the homeless, unemployed or anyone struggling, said the Rev. Nancy Meister, a church deacon and head of its social services ministry. Invites went out to mental health agencies, shelters and ministries to include groups such as Gospel Rescue Mission and Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse.
Others — outpatient treatment center HOPE, Inc., employment service DKA and behavioral health organization COPE Community Services, Inc. — shuttled groups to the church.
“We invited everybody,” Carr said.
Some guests spotted the spa day online, while taking a breather from the hectic holidays.
“We can’t afford to do anything like this; it’s like a big relief,” said April Barbosa, 33. “Yesterday, I did Christmas shopping and I was so stressed, and today I came and got my hair done. ... It feels nice to be pampered for a morning. It’s a rare thing.”
Barbosa heard about the event through Facebook several days prior and brought her 14-year-old daughter Rosaura Barbosa for a mother-daughter bonding day. This has been a hard year for the family, April Barbosa said.
Flashing her lime green nails, Rosaura called her first manicure “amazing.” Both she and her mother took advantage of several spa services, including Grace St. Paul’s Healing Touch Clinic, which uses energy therapy to identify and alleviate stress and pain points in a body.
“Usually, I’m in constant pain,” April Barbosa said. Multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia often keep her at home. At least for that moment, the clinic eased the aches.
“People are intensely suffering during the holidays if they are alone or have had loss,” Carr said. “It’s such an intense time of joy, but also an intense time of grief, and because of the disparity between those feelings, the grief is amplified.”
Other church programming along with this spa day and another closer to Thanksgiving acknowledged that life gets tough even — and especially — during the holidays.
Grace St. Paul’s has hosted seven spa days and partnered with Aveda for four of those. Aveda will continue to donate its time and talents in the coming year, with the next day of pampering planned for February, Carr said.
The spa, which now has repeat visitors, started several years ago as a small foot spa for the people who stop by the church’s Joseph’s Pantry for food.
Carr got the idea when he saw a similar service in a documentary about Skid Row in Los Angeles. He studied up on reflexology and enlisted some help. He and event co-founder Kitt Leonard tied the foot spa to the church’s celebration of Maundy Thursday, which is the day before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ when he ate the Last Supper and washed the feet of his disciples, commanding them to do the same.
The spa corresponded with the Episcopal Church’s literal celebration of that command.
But then it grew, and the Aveda Institute joined the handful of church volunteers to give the day a makeover.
About 25 Aveda volunteers — mostly students — showed up last week to paint nails, trim hair and put on makeup. Or at least, that’s what they thought they signed up for.
Toward the end of the morning, Cathalina Meade’s children turned the tables, charming idle manicurists while their mom had her nails painted red and green. By the time Samantha Solis, 7, Yovani Solis, 5, and Belinda Solis, 4, were done, several Aveda students had multicolored nails (and fingers). Another student held Meade’s 6-month-old daughter, Briseida Solis, bouncing the baby. Her newly painted nails matched her bright pink onesie.
With her husband deported to Mexico and her family currently living at a shelter after just a few months in Tucson, this morning was a break for Meade, 29, and a moment of fun for her children.
For a couple of hours, at least, somebody cared.
“I’m trying to look good and feel good,” said James Carlino, 50. As a stylist cut his hair, he admitted to some anxiety about getting a cut he would like.
Carlino came to the spa day with HOPE, Inc. for a haircut and manicure. He hopes to get a job soon and misses his family. This haircut, he thinks, will help.
“They’re actually grateful for what we’re doing for them,” said Madison Hines, a 20-year-old Aveda student. “A lot of people that come into Aveda, they want what they want. They walk in and they’re expecting five star service and perfect hair, and (at the spa day) they come in and they’re all so nice and say, ‘Do whatever you want. Make me look good.’”
This was the third community spa day Hines worked at Grace St. Paul’s, and although she was nervous the first time around, she calls the experience “life changing.” The first time, she gave a haircut to a peer — a 20-year-old girl who was homeless and pregnant, she said.
“When they sit down, and they have their hands in the water, it’s like, ‘What do you even talk to them about?’” Hines said about starting conversations over a manicure. “Then you start giving them the hand massage, and they start to feel you. I feel like that’s when people start to open up a little bit more to me.”
Most spent the morning smiling and chatting, but this was the first spa day to see an outburst from a guest who had been getting her hair cut, Carr said. The woman left with some staffers and after a pause the services resumed.
The social services ministry at Grace St. Paul’s that helps people obtain basic needs such as food, shelter and transportation often begins with conversation.
“We try to fill a gap in the community, and so we start by listening to people’s stories,” Meister said. “A lot people come in with a great deal of emotional pain and feel undervalued as people, so that is one of our core things, to listen carefully and respect the dignity of their worth.”
Sometimes, it’s the little things that restore value — the whir of a blow dryer, bowls of free toiletries donated by hotels, cookies and tea, a foot rub.
And sometimes, it’s saying something about a haircut that needs touching up.
“I’m learning to speak up for myself, which is cool,” said Penye Murray, 51, as she settled into a chair, a salon cape draped on her shoulders for the second time that day. “In the past, I would have not said anything and resented it and gotten really embarrassed. I just want the top lighter. Things are changing.”
Murray came to the spa day with DKA, pushing past anxieties about chaos to “have them deck my halls,” she said.
“I’m an above-the-knee amputee, and I had some physical problems, and I didn’t have help, so I got afraid to leave the house,” Murray said. “I had been hiding for probably five years, and I don’t want to hide anymore. I’m missing a lot, and I think I can contribute a lot, so I’m really grateful to this.”
It’s a step, and a hard one at that.
“I have had people say things to me like, ‘No one has ever touched me in a nice way before,’” said Martha Jane Farnham, a church volunteer who helps set up and rub feet. “I think this is really what Jesus had in mind when he said, ‘Go out and do my work.’ I think this is Jesus work right here. It’s all about real people with real problems and real lives and real needs and just daily stuff we all take for granted — just looking decent.”
