Finding your bloom by helping others

FINDLAY — For the past four years, Brooke Simsa and some of her fellow hair stylists have been offering free Heavenly Haircuts for kids. Every 15 minutes, they complete eight haircuts so it moves quickly, she said. "It's crazy there. It's sweaty, it's gross. It's a long day," said Simsa. But she loves it. "It is awesome," she said. Bless Up & Bloom, a local nonprofit known for providing hygiene care and supporting community wellness, has teamed up with Heavenly Pizza to provide haircuts for children in need prior to the start of the new school year. And the program is growing, said Simsa, who is the executive director. This year marks the fifth year for the event in Findlay, the third year in Tiffin, and the second year in Upper Sandusky. Volunteers will also provide haircuts for veterans and their families at a Veterans Empowerment Summer Fair and Family Picnic Aug. 2. Simsa, who has been a hairdresser in Findlay for 22 years, said the organization has probably provided thousands of haircuts since its founding in 2020. A Findlay native, Simsa grew up in a family of hair stylists. Her grandmother owned a salon in the Carriage House Plaza. That's where Simsa started helping by cleaning the tanning beds and doing some secretarial work. Her mother owned Tangles. "But I didn't want to do hair just because everyone did hair," she said. Instead, Simsa wanted to be a social psychologist. But when that didn't work out, the lure of staying close to home pulled her back, and she attended the Tiffin Hair Academy. "After you have a family of hair dressers, you have to figure out who you are as your own person," she said. Simsa is also a single mom with two children, one of whom is special needs and had to have her head shaved during surgery at the age of 3. "So everyone else is looking like Rapunzel in the mirror in the vanity, and I didn't want her to look in the mirror and be scared of herself," she said. The experience made Simsa question how she could help others feel beautiful from the inside out when they don't feel that way. "Whether it's life, trauma, cancer, different things. So it always bothered me that I couldn't do more or help more," she said. Simsa also has worked part-time as a direct support provider. That's when she noticed that hygiene is often neglected. "Then COVID happened. We got shut down and we couldn't do hair," she recalled. "And I was like how do I find my purpose beyond the chair? How do I find who Brooke is and what am I supposed to do with this?" She had always served people, but now she wondered how to get to the people who needed a haircut or even have their hair washed. "So all these little things that I've done, whether I've helped out with Hope House, Open Arms or different things, I was like I really want to meet people where they're at, and I want to help the people," she said. At that point, Josh Elchert, owner-operator of Heavenly Pizza, asked if she could do haircuts for eight children before school. "I said sure. In two weeks, they had 100. Now I need five stylists," she said. "That's where it started and it's just grown." This year the program will provide haircuts for 600 children. They will each also receive a bag with a full-size shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, brush, comb and body wash. Last year, the nonprofit put together 100 hygiene kits for the Findlay City Schools using grant money provided by the school district. A grant awarded to Open Arms also enabled them to help serve women getting back on their feet. Simsa said the women got their hair done and received hygiene products and a free meal. "They just felt good about themselves after whatever they've been through," she said. And while not everyone wants a haircut, they all need hygiene products, she said. Bless Up and Bloom works on collecting hygiene bags throughout the year. With these programs, Simsa said she wanted to create something that everyone could help with. Even though everyone can't cut hair, she said, they can bring in a random bag and hygiene items or donate money for the agency's mission. "It's so exciting, so I can get them to the people," she said. The Heavenly Haircuts' schedule is as follows: • Aug. 4 — 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., rear lot of Heavenly Pizza, 1132 Tiffin Ave., Findlay. • Aug. 11 — 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., parking lot of A.J.'s Heavenly Pizza, 69 W. Market St., Tiffin. • Aug. 18 — 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., inside Trinity Evangelical Church, 108 Malabar Drive, Upper Sandusky. The events will include food, Kona Ice and bounce houses. Haircuts are available to children in grades K-12, provided by volunteer stylists. Children are asked to come with clean hair, Simsa said. Employees of the health department in their county will check for lice. "We cannot cut their hair (if they have lice)," she said. "But we can get them the resources to help." Children can be signed up on the Heavenly Pizza webpages in their county. They will be accepted on a first come, first serve basis, said Simsa. Licensed hair stylists are needed to volunteer their time for the events, while community members can donate or volunteer by visiting blessupandbloom.com The organization is also seeking volunteers to help run the beer tent at the Balloon Fest the evenings of Aug. 8 and 9. Duties include taking tickets, taking money and serving beer. Money raised will go to the organization's programs. "I'm finally finding Brooke," said Simsa. "I know that I love helping people, and I know I want to do this for everybody because everyone needs a bloom."