If you’re walking through Buckeye’s Liberty neighborhood, you might not notice anything particularly unique about that tan stucco house on Hazelwood. You certainly wouldn’t assume it’s filled with more than 10,000 wigs or that it’s the shipping site for the U.S.’s only national wig exchange, covering every state west of the Mississippi River.
Well, look again. Nestled in its little corner of Buckeye, that house is the local headquarters for EBeauty Community, a nonprofit which supplies wigs free of charge to women with medical needs such as cancer or alopecia. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an important time for the organization’s staff and volunteers — many of whom are cancer survivors themselves. They’re the “Sisterhood of the Traveling Wigs” says Chief Operating Officer Laura Jirsa with a laugh that echoes through her team of volunteers gathered in the Buckeye house’s living room.
EBeauty was founded in 2012 by Jirsa’s sister-in-law, Carolyn Keller, who is the organization’s president. Jirsa is a breast cancer survivor and, when Keller was given the same diagnosis and lost her hair, Jirsa offered to let Keller wear her wig.
“That was the aha moment,” Jirsa says. “[Keller] said, ‘I could do this for more women.’”
“Our volunteers are everything to us. This gives women a purpose to give back,” Jirsa says. “You have to have purpose in your life. It gives us gratitude.”
Volunteer Cindy Guterres is a cancer survivor and Liberty community resident who came across the EBeauty house one day while on a walk. She’s been a volunteer ever since and said the most fulfilling aspect of the work is being able to give clients a customized wig suited to their needs and tastes.
“It’s super incredible to be able to be part of,” she said. “Giving people individual time, listening.”
“Our volunteers take an enormous amount of time and pride to find the wig that’s the best fit possible,” Jirsa says.
Volunteer Jackie Rosner, whose sister is diagnosed with cancer, says she found a sense of purpose and hope through her work with EBeauty. She recalls a client who she helped find a wig. The woman was uncertain at first, however, after going through the match process, she received not only a new wig but also renewed confidence.
“To see them in that special wig, to make them feel beautiful—I get very passionate about it,” Rosner said.
“I’ve had husbands call and just sob saying they can’t throw the wig away,” Jirsa said. “It helps them heal.”
That tan stucco house in Hazelwood is a rotating door of wigs and shipping is expensive. The organization is run entirely on donations and small grants with its biggest fundraising event of the year coming at the conclusion of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Wigs & Wishes event will be from 5-9 p.m. on Nov. 2 at Buckeye’s Heritage Swim Park. More information is available by contacting local community service ambassador Kathy Szklinski at [email protected].
