A frisky French can can dance routine helped big-hearted staff at a salon in Wrexham raise almost £500 for a group of vulnerable local youngsters.
The Moulin Rouge-style knees-up was one of the highlights of a packed programme of fun events at Gozo Men in St George’s Crescent at the Eagles Meadow shopping centre in Wrexham.
It arranged to support the Idwal Family Centre, which from its base on the Plas Madoc estate provides a wide range of help and support for children and young people aged from 0-18.
The routine, staged at the end of action-packed seven hours of fundraising activities, saw the salon’s team of stylists and beauticians dressed in naughty but nice can can frocks complete with frilly petticoats, stockings and garters.
Salon owner Sharon Hughes, who masterminded the whole day, said: “The lads in particular really loved it and asked us if we could do it every week from now on.
“Apart from myself, the girls taking part in the dance routine were my two daughters, Katie Hughes, who is our style director, and Chloe Sudlow, who works here as an assistant at weekends, along with stylists Tara Davies and Hazel Rogers.”
“We practiced the routine in our less busy moments, so I think we gave a pretty polished performance on the day.”
Former nurse Sharon risked her life’s savings to open Gozo, which specialises in men’s hair and body treatments, in the teeth of the recession in 2010 but has since made the salon a huge hit with customers.
She and her staff pride themselves on their backing for good causes and they pulled out all the stops to help the Idwal Centre after hearing of the good work it does from one of their customers at the salon.
Sharon said: “One of the people who work at Idwal Centre is a regular with us and they told us how marvellous it is.
“Among the many things they do is take the youngsters away on outings to give them a change of scene and my team and myself thought this was particularly worthwhile.
“Our aim was to raise as much money as possible to support the trips and all the good work the centre does.
“During our day of fundraising we had all sorts of things going on at the salon, including having a DJ called Azza playing a constant steam of funky music, two girls, Amelia McMeiken and Megan Hughes, doing face painting, the sale of cakes donated by Subway at Eagles Meadow, serving our customers with non-alcoholic cocktails and a table football tournament for the guys coming into the salon.”
Sharon added: “One of the highlights of the day was the auction we had at around 4pm with a host of fantastic lots provided by our sponsors from Eagles Meadow and the surrounding area.
“From Debenhams we had a box of treats, the Odeon supplied us with four tickets, there were four tickets from Ten Pin bowls, a £20 voucher and the cakes from Subway, a £19.99 platter from Nando’s, a £40 voucher from Mountain Warehouse, a £10 voucher and 10 per cent off deal from Wallis and a £50 voucher from Ragazzi.
“On top of that, Grainger games let us have posters, Wrexham FC, which has a temporary shop in the shopping centre, gave us four match tickets, Hair by Rebecca May donated a cut and blow dry, Ever Beyond gave us an integrated bin, there was a £50 voucher and meal for two from Anise restaurant, the Wynnstay Arms Hotel let us have a two course meal for four people and Jackie Davies sent us a signed football shirt.
“I’d like to thank everyone who donated items for the auction which was a lot of fun and itself made £230.
“The whole day should see us raise over £480 for Idwal House, which is a fantastic amount.
“A nice surprise was that, later in the day, the Mayor and Mayoress of Wrexham, Councillor I. David Bithell and his wife Virginia, popped in to see us after attending another event nearby and they were very impressed by what we were doing.”
Karen Jones, deputy manager at the Idwal Family Centre, said: “We’re delighted that Sharon and her team at Gozo Men raised nearly £500 for the centre.
“We do quite a bit of fundraising ourselves for the work we do but we’re always very grateful when other people decide to support us too.”
Lesley McMaiken, who is part of the staff at the Idwal Centre, was at the salon for most of the day to enjoy the fun.
She said: “It was a really fantastic day and everyone involved enjoyed themselves so much.
“It was an excellent thing for Sharon and her team to do all that to raise this money for the Idwal Centre and myself and my fellow staff members are very grateful to them for their marvellous efforts.”
Eagles Meadow Manager Kevin Critchley said: “It was a magnificent effort by the team at Gozo in aid of a very worthwhile cause. I understand there have been many requests for a repeat performance of the can can routine which understandably went down a storm with the customers!”
