Children from Quebec ate pizza and received gifts from Santa Claus before ending their visit with a haircut thanks to the generosity of a barber in the Limoilou district.
Saturday, for a second consecutive year during the holiday season, the Atelier de la 1 showre Avenue has opened its doors to young people, bringing out scissors and clippers to keep children “nice and clean” at Christmas.
“It’s a great success once again. The living room is full. This morning, it was overflowing,” says with pride the owner who calls himself Ben the barber.
The latter planned the visit of around 150 children for his Christmas activity which caused a stir on social networks, since it was the rapper from Limoilou Souldia who invited the population to participate in this activity.
“I'm not alone, there are a lot of people who help me with pizza, gifts and, you saw, Souldia made the video. He is very generous […] He’s a customer and now a friend,” underlines the instigator of the day.
Music by Souldia
Moreover, during the visit to the Journalit was Souldia's music playing at high intensity while the volunteer barbers were in action and Aunt Nathy was examining the work on her nephew Luka.
“It’s a great activity, there’s a lot of atmosphere, it’s fun with Santa too,” says the neighborhood resident.
In the next chair, a regular at the salon who came from Charlesbourg, is attentive to her son Jacob's haircut.
“Magnificent, this activity during the holiday season. Very generous of them,” says Véronique.
The volunteer barbers from the Atelier in Limoilou cut the hair of Luka (left) and Jacob (right), the latter under the gaze of his mother Véronique (behind).
Photo Louis Deschenes
Several events
This is not the first time that Ben the barber has mobilized his troops to help families.
At the start of the school year, a similar activity made it possible to cut the hair of 170 students for free, just before the start of classes.
In January, he raised more than $4,300 to pay for part of the care of a seriously ill 4-year-old girl who had to go into exile in the United States.
Later, during an event in L'Île-d'Orléans, the owner of the Atelier and his team raised $7,000 for the François-Xavier-Beaulieu foundation which helps young people with epilepsy.
Many families came to the Atelier in Limoilou for a free haircut.
Photo Louis Deschenes
The barber's goal is to organize six events per year to give back to the community now that life is smiling on him.
“When I was young, we had nothing, I didn't get any presents and Santa Claus, we only saw him on TV,” concludes the Samaritan of Moroccan origin who has been in Quebec for 15 years.
