Local hair stylist raises funds for school supplies

Marc Hayot/Siloam Sunday Autumn Rhine (left), picks out folders as part of a school supply list for one of her children. Rhine, who recently lost her job found Sharilyn Schultz Ford's posts on Facebook to help families with school supply needs and signed up to receive help.
Marc Hayot/Siloam Sunday Autumn Rhine (left), picks out folders as part of a school supply list for one of her children. Rhine, who recently lost her job found Sharilyn Schultz Ford's posts on Facebook to help families with school supply needs and signed up to receive help.

Destiny Stelivan moved to Siloam Springs last year from Minneapolis, Minn., with her daughter to care for her aunt and get away from the realities of the city.

Along with adjusting to a new city she discovered that her aunt had cancer. With these concerns, purchasing school supplies was not something that seemed feasible. That was until Sharilyn Schultz Ford came along.

Ford, who owns Salon Synergy in downtown Siloam Springs, has collected donations from friends and customers to purchase school supplies for Stelivan and other families who don't have the funds to purchase school supplies.

As a single mother, Ford understands the struggle of not having enough resources to purchase school supplies. Over the years, Ford became a business owner and married someone who could partner with her on things like school supplies. With her children grown, Ford was thinking about those days and realized that someone else could use the help too.

"I feel like the Lord just laid it on my heart," Ford said "When I woke up this morning I saw that the need was even greater than I had realized. So I just put it out there and asked people if they wanted to contributem and the contributions were overwhelmingly supportive that way."

Ford said she raised $2,000 and budgeted for $50 per child. Ford has 40 children she is shopping for, she said. On Thursday she shopped for five families with 21 children represented, Ford said. She also shopped for the rest of the families on Friday night and Saturday night, Ford said.

There were some families who backed out, because their own families stepped in to help once they found out they had reached out to Ford, she said. Others like Stelivan, who is helping her aunt raise her five cousins, nieces and with her brother Sean's help, were just grateful for the assistance.

"It means a lot because, like I said, we're starting over like in a totally different area," Stelivan said. "I really appreciate it."

Autumn Rhine, who had just recently her job, found Ford through posts on the Facebook group What's Up Siloam, she said.

"It means knowing that my kids will be able to have the things they need to go to school," Rhine said.

With the pressures of living on only one income, having her four children's school supplies covered is a great relief, Rhine said.

Ford said she has no plan but is taking the whole thing bit by bit.

"It was literally just a thought that grew," Ford said. "So I'm taking it moment by moment and trying to figure it out myself."

  photo  Photo submitted Sharilyn Schultz Ford (center) poses with the Stelivan family with their school supplies. The Stelivans are one of five families Ford helped out on Thursday with school supplies.