With its founder pulling double-duty as a veteran, Sport Clips Haircuts is understandably big on donating to service members and their families. The chain's Fort Wayne location is taking that charity and redefining it.
After stylists donated their wages, tips and sales last Saturday to benefit the Veterans of Foreign Wars' Operation UpLink program, the store at 10250 Coldwater Road is doing it again today, in addition to handing over $1 of every haircut, as part of the business's Cut-a-thon.
Operation UpLink is a program that provides calling cards to soldiers to phone their families while they're serving. From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sport Clips will cut as much hair as possible to total as many minutes for those service members as possible.
It's not only how Sport Clips founder Gordon Logan would want it, it's how the local hairstylists would want it if they were in that situation, store manager Tina Kucinsky said.
“Our idea was, what if we weren't able to call our loved ones?” Kucinsky said. “That's all it took. Everyone was like, how can we make the world a little better place and change lives in our corner of the world?”
Last Saturday's event raised $1,000 for the program, a figure that doesn't include store sales from the day. Kucinsky said the store has a goal of $10,000 for today, and while she knows it's probably unrealistic, even if the day nets only $1, “It's more than we had to begin with,” she said.
“We're just so happy that we're able to have a tie to the service members and the veterans,” Kucinsky said. “… They sacrifice, the families sacrifice, they … make our country safe. What's our sacrifice just for one day?”
In addition to the in-store fundraising, Kucinsky said Sport Clips staff has been going door to door asking for donations for the UpLink program. Kucinsky said her staff took the initiative and made it a calling.
“The girls wanted to make a difference,” Kucinsky said. “All it was was basically telling them about the idea, then they look at it like, what if they were in that position? So we just cut hair and have a lot of fun at the same time.”
