Homeless Shelter Manicures

I've been volunteering all week at a homeless shelter we hold at my school every January. Last night - spa night. I instantly signed up to give manicures to all the men and women at shelter. We also had a couple foot baths, and plenty of helpers. I set up on my little red table and waited :D.

Left: My "work station" with all my tools and such
Right: My polishes, lotions, etc
(One of the volunteers even had a Zoya to offer to the polish stash!)

We had loads of ladies come by to get their hands and feet done that night. Plenty of men indulged in the foot baths, but none were brave enough for a manicure. Well, except one of the volunteers who was dying for me to do something about his cuticles lol. I started out with just one girl helping me at the manicure table, and we were only supposed to do hands. Once we got going lots of other female volunteers were very interested in helping and soon we had 4 or 5 helpers. After some people started asking about pedicures, we couldn't turn them away. We all know messing with the feet of someone you don't know, whose feet might not even be clean, can be...uncomfortable. Some of the guests at the shelter really needed help though. One woman with arthritis couldn't grip clippers enough to trim her toenails, so her feet hadn't seen pampering in who knows how long. Her toes actually caused her great pain. How could we say no to that? I had expected some resistance from the other volunteers, but one sweet girl Katie didn't even hesitate to help her. Here she is giving another woman a pretty manicure :D.We had just the right amount of people sign up to where I had enough time to get a little funky with the manicures and do some nail art :D. This woman was so excited to get her nails done! Katie did her base color, moved her to the foot spa to dry, and I came over with the colors she had picked out. It was red with blue and gold lines :D. She liked them so much I did her toes the same way!
Doing this was a great experience. It opened my eyes in many ways. More people than I ever expected wanted to help, and wanted to help to the fullest extent. I swear every person that walked up to me said thank you. They all appreciated it so much! And it really made me thankful for what I do have, even something that sounds as simple or as common to you and I as healthy feet.