People get a fresh start thanks to Apple employees and pop-up barbers
- jan
- 16
What you need to know
- Jaz Limos ate with a homeless man only to discover he was her father.
- Limos wondered why people open up in the barber's chair and wanted to help others.
- The result was the Saints of Steel.
All the warm and fuzzies.
Apple has shared the story of Jaz Limos, a San Francisco resident and manager at the Apple Park Visitor Center. Limos had the amazing luck of sharing a meal with a homeless man only to discover that he was "her father who she hadn't seen since she was a teenager." Afterward, she set about helping others in need.
Limos was already obsessed with the question of why people seem to open up when they're in the barber's chair. And coupled with the wish to help those who need it, the next step was to set up Saints of Steel, a non-profit pop-up barber.
"When I recognized that there's so many different piecemeal options for someone to get help, that the entry point has to be just right where you can build rapport … a barber was a very organic way to open up and just feel better," Limos says...
Coming face to face with her own family's hardships compelled Limos to focus on giving back to her community. A series of events followed that paved a path to her solution: Saints of Steel was born, a nonprofit pop-up barber shop and makeover event for people in need looking for employment, housing and a fresh start.
Limos was able to make it all happen thanks to her Apple colleagues and the fact the company also matched contributions. Without them, Limos says, the project wouldn't have come together in the way that it did.
Giving is ingrained in Apple team members and corporate employees across the globe. Roughly 80% of Saints of Steel's first year of donations came from Benevity, the corporate giving platform, and 74% of that was made by Apple. Apple team members like Harry Smith, senior manager at Apple Stanford Shopping Center, was on the organization's board and continues to volunteer his time at their events.
And throughout the company, in 2019 alone, roughly 21,000 employees volunteered their time and donated $42 million to causes they care about. When combined with the company's 1-for-1 donation match and $25 match per volunteer hour, Apple donated over $100 million to causes throughout the year.
This is yet another example of what good can come from the world when people have the motivation and are given the tools to make it happen. You can read more about the people Saints of Steel is helping on in the Apple Newsroom and I wish them all the best with their work. It's great to see people giving back to those who need it most.