By Janelle Faignant
THE RUTLAND HERALD
It started last year when a young woman in the Bennington area reached out to the NAACP with an idea for mini hair clinics for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) kids in Vermont. Two were held, in Bennington and Rutland, and about a half dozen kids showed up for each.
It got the ball rolling and Mia Schultz, president of the Rutland Area NAACP, wanted to continue them. She reached out to La’Keiah Batista Sanchez, the health chair/event coordinator of Rutland’s NAACP chapter, who had previously coordinated several BIPOC COVID-19 vaccine clinics.
“I already knew a couple of people that braided hair because they braided my hair,” Sanchez said. “I asked would they be willing to do the clinic, and once people heard about what I was doing, (they) started calling me to volunteer. Because it’s a much needed service in the community.”
Sanchez held her first clinic at Rutland Regional Medical Center, where she also works, earlier this year.
“I didn’t expect it to be as successful as it was,” she said. “We had scheduled the kids for four hours. We ended up being there for eight hours with 21 children.”
“It was great,” she said. “And because of the great turnout, we decided to do a second one.”
That one took place this past Juneteenth in Rutland and Bennington, a week apart, to an even bigger turnout.
“(In) Bennington we served 36 kids, and when we hit Rutland, it was even better,” Sanchez said. “I think (we) served 50 kids, over 100 people showed up. My husband is a chef, and between him and I we cooked, so we had food, we had a DJ, we had games, we had coloring and a photo booth. It was just an amazing turnout.”
The calls started pouring in, when would the next one take place?
“Sept. 4 is our next clinic for the BIPOC community, and it will be in Castleton,” Sanchez said. “We don’t disclose the location because of safety reasons (but) all the people that come to the clinic know the location — I send them a confirmation email with the address a week before.”
The September clinic filled up within four hours of Sanchez announcing it, but there are more planned.
“We don’t know when they’re going to be yet,” Sanchez said, but she has also put the wheels in motion to open a BIPOC salon in Rutland.
“The hair clinics were not meant to be a permanent solution,” she said. “An actual salon was supposed to be the end result. This is just basically to make (people) aware that this is something that’s needed. There’s only one braiding salon in the whole state of Vermont, and that’s in Burlington.”
The clinics offer braiding and barber appointments with space for more than 30 BIPOC youth younger than 18 from Bennington, Addison and Rutland counties. All appointments are free, supported by community donations. Visit naacprutland.org/hair-clinics for more information and sign-up link.
jim.sabataso @rutlandherald.com
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