We are thrilled to feature this month’s Volunteer Spotlight, Annie Fisher. Annie donates her time and expertise to making our models look stunning as they walk the runway at Cancer Pathways’ Annual Surviving with Style Fashion Show & Gala, our biggest fundraiser of the year. All of our models are cancer survivors from all ages and backgrounds. Annie is the owner of AFH, a salon in Madison Valley, and she will be the lead hairdresser for the Fashion Show, gathering a group of stylists and makeup artists to make our models feel and look their personal best and prepare them to walk down the runway.
In recent years, Annie has invited Cancer Pathways to host workshops at AFH to teach her stylists communication skills around the subject of cancer and provide tools to assist them in creating a sense of community for people with a cancer diagnosis. When someone is about to start treatment, concerns about what to do with their hair, how to maintain it during treatment, or even whether to keep their hair or not, they share these fears — and how they affect their sense of identity — with their hairstylist. Annie reveals that her stylists are often the first to find out about a client’s cancer diagnosis, sometimes even before the client’s family members.
At AFH, stylists help people living with cancer to transition, holding hands and holding a place for them to be vulnerable. “Part of my mission in opening the salon was to share our time and our talent,” she said, “Hair is more than hair. It is part of the way the world looks at you. It helps empower you.” Cancer Pathways isn’t the only nonprofit to which AFH has lent time and talent. Individuals experiencing homelessness, domestic abuse, and chronic illness have all been cared for by AFH through their philosophy; that the value of touch and taking the time for self-care, whether you are a caregiver, a person going through treatment, or a person in any kind of distress, cannot be underestimated.
One day, a long-time friend and supporter called us and asked if we happened to know anyone who could come to his home and give him a haircut. He wasn’t able to get out because of his cancer treatment and get a haircut. He just wasn’t feeling his best. When we asked Annie if she knew anyone who could help, she immediately accepted this request herself, heading over to his home on her very next day off, to personally cut his hair. It was such an unexpectedly meaningful and warming experience that by the end, they were both in tears. Sometimes, even the smallest kindnesses can be the most touching and impactful. Thank you, Annie, for your special devotion to our members and for your years of dedicated volunteerism.
To book an appt at AFH Salon, call 206-329-2719
or visit anniefisherhair.com