Back-to-school haircuts give students sense of pride

By Kendra Simpson

The Northside Pride Association provided free haircuts Sunday afternoon to give St. Joseph students a sense of pride going back to school.

From 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, the Strong Tower Baptist Church was filled with bustling families excited to go back to school with a fresh haircut, free school supplies and a sense of community.

“Our community, there’s kids who really need things that they can’t afford,” Northside Pride Association President Emily Sumner said. “If you think about how many kids you have to a family, if there’s multiple you have to take that haircut price times six, five or four or however many. That can get really expensive on top of school supplies, so we’re just trying to help these kids get a good start to the new school year.”

While waiting for their haircuts, kids got to play games, jump in bouncy houses and even get their face painted. Along with free haircuts, everyone who attended also received hygiene items, school supplies and Washington Park Library cards.

After having to disband the Northside Community Association due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Sumner saw a need in the Northside community. Because of this, she co-founded and presided over the Northside Pride Association to meet that need.

“In 2020, when everything was kind of going by the wayside, there used to be a Northside Community Association and then they kind of disbanded, and so I saw a need in the Northside to help our students,” Sumner said. “We were like ‘What can we do’? We kind of threw this together the first year with just the free haircuts and it just kind of evolved and got bigger each year.”

All this so every kid can go back to school happy, healthy and ready to learn.