For one single mom of six in Cochrane, this Christmas will be a little brighter thanks to the giving spirit embodied in salon owner Tiara Scholes.
Scholes’ shop is called T Haus and has been open in town since last summer. She and her husband made Cochrane home six years ago, and she said she feels like a part of the community.
So when she heard through the salon grapevine about a single mom facing Christmas wondering how she was going to make it special for her six kids, she jumped in and launched the Giving Tree.
“The way it works is you find someone who’s in need at Christmas, and it means a little bit of extra magic this time of year, not necessarily for themselves but for the little ones,” she said.
“Through word of mouth we hear all the stories in the salon. So one of my clients was sort of venting about her girlfriend’s situation, she was leaving a domestic relationship and was the mom of six little ones aged two to 18, and was now on her own,” Scholes said.
Her client was worried about how her girlfriend was going to cope with Christmas, and that the young ones were going to wake up on Christmas morning with nothing under the tree.
“As she was explaining this heartache, my heart was just growing inside, and I was thinking ‘What can I do?’” Scholes said.
So the Giving Tree went up. People who want to help out come and choose an ornament off the tree that might say something like ‘4-year-old boy, would like a magic set’ and they go and buy the present and bring it back, unwrapped, to the salon. Their name is then entered to win a gift basket.
“It’s mostly for the younger kids – the older ones know where the magic comes from,” Scholes said.
The mom gave Scholes the ages of her sons and daughters but did not include her own name in the wish list. So, Scholes went ahead and did it for her.
She said anyone interested in helping out can drop by the T Haus Salon at 212 – 118 First Ave. They are on the second floor of the Sheridan Mall next to RBC. As of Dec. 12, there were six ornaments not claimed on the tree.
Cochranite Shelley Rogers, a client of Scoles’, alerted The Eagle to the story in the hope the idea catches on. Rogers said she wouldn’t have known about the giving tree if she hadn’t had a hair appointment. She took one of the ornaments herself.
“I think it’s marvelous. It would be nice if other businesses saw fit to carry it forward in years to come. It cannot be an easy job to raise six children,” Rogers said.
Word of mouth it seems, can be a powerful thing, especially in a hair salon.
