// Philanthropy //
The Glitter Bee knows very well the value of community. Since moving to Waynesboro in 2017 I feel blessed to have been embraced by my new community and love finding ways to give back.
For a few years our philanthropic efforts have been via donations from henna sessions and special glitter mixes. While those have been great, I have found myself wanting to do more. Something that really makes an impact on people’s lives.
Given my love for custom pieces, meeting women where they are, and creating very personalized art for individuals, it’s no surprise that faceless donations didn’t feel like the thing. I was inspired, in the worst possible way, in January of 2023 to start a beautiful new project when I lost a dear friend to cancer.
Randi Brown was a force of nature. This incredible woman, mother, artist, and friend gave metastatic breast cancer a run for its money for 6 years. I have heard it said in multiple circles that she didn’t fight cancer, it fought her.
I’ve never seen someone go through something so hard, with so much grace. She also never stopped looking forward to the next big thing. She knew that she wasn’t promised any of the time she was working toward, but she was not going to get there unprepared. She inspires me daily to keep on doing the damn thing. No matter what.
Randi and I talked regularly about me doing a henna crown for her, but we never did get around to making it happen. I could regret that fact forever, but instead I’m going to Randi it. I’m going to move forward to the next big beautiful thing and do my best to honor her strength, spirit, and love. That said, I’d like to introduce…
The Randi Project
It is under this banner that I will be providing henna crowns, free of charge, to people going through cancer treatments. In order to keep this going, providing services to as many people as possible, I’m going to need some help.
While I will always do my best to ensure that I don’t have to turn anyone away, this business is my sole source of income. I want to be able to travel to people’s homes if they aren’t well enough to come to my studio. Doing so as often as I’d like to will be something that can easily cut into time that would otherwise need to be spent taking regular clients, hosting craft nights, working events, and other revenue generating activities. These are all wonderful things that I adore doing, don’t get me wrong. But, ultimately I want to see this project fund itself, while my business continues unaffected. And even if it’s hard….this is happening.
If you would like to assist in covering the costs associated with travel, time, and materials used in providing henna crowns, donations are welcome and appreciated. Henna crowns through the Randi Project will ALWAYS be provided at no cost to the recipient and in the future there will be a nomination form for those wanting to gift a henna crown to someone special.
make a direct donation
Donations can be made below in ten dollar increments from $10-$100.
Know someone that would benefit from a randi crown?
I want to hear all about them! Please let me know of any individuals or organizations that would benefit from partnerships with The Glitter Bee via The Randi Project.
