If you just so happened to be passing by the Williams County Fairground in the late morning or early afternoon of December 4, and you noticed a lot of traffic around the west gate of the fairgrounds, you weren’t alone. Although the fairground was by and large devoid of activity on this day, trying to find a parking space near the Gillette Building was an exercise in futility, and for good reason.
A few months back, Chrissy Henricks of Famous Hair in Bryan had an idea that became an event called, ‘Cuts for Kidz’. The concept was simple. This was to be an event where four of her co-workers set up shop for free haircuts for kids, with a family-oriented, fun event surrounding the stylists. There would be food, fun, a disc jockey, drawings for kids prizes consisting of everything from toys to new bicycles, horse-drawn carriage rides and a visit from Santa Claus. There would even be drawings for ‘family’ prizes for the adults. December 4 was the date selected, and the choice of the Gillette Building as the site of the event proved to be wise as the Cuts for Kidz attracted a small village to the fairgrounds.
“Wow! All I can think of right now is, wow,” said Ms. Henricks in describing the event. “At my last count, we had 180 kids, and that’s probably gone up. We ran out of food…we actually ran out of food! This is so incredible, I’m thinking about asking for others to join in next year, because we could use the help.” The workload on the four stylists was so great, they were forced to cut off registrations for free haircuts at 1:30, a full 90 minutes prior to the planned event close. Even then, the stylists still worked well beyond the 3:00 closing time to serve all that had registered.
There is nothing like seeing the smiles and hearing the laughter of kids having a blast, and everywhere that you looked, both in and around the Gillette Building, the smiles and laughter was ubiquitous. Chrissy Henricks and the Famous Hair team set the bar high for family fun with the 2016 Cuts for Kidz event, but they already have the gears in motion for a bigger event next year. It won’t be easy topping the inaugural run, but if they hit it out of the park on this, their first try, then the 2017 event should be one for the ages.
Timothy Kays can be reached at tim@thevillagereporter.com