By Andie Foley
andie.foley@salisburypost.com

To the unsuspecting, the fellowship hall of St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church could have seemed unrecognizable on Saturday.

On one side of the room stood a row of barbers, Bryon Goodlett, Reese Lylery, Ayman Ibrahim, Daniel King and LaMyron Greene, their electric clippers buzzing away as they worked.

On the other side were hair stylists Crystal Greene and Monique Bevan along with a few drafted helpers, fingers working away on braids and other intricate hairstyles.

The effort was part of the church’s first annual “Haircuts and Hairdos” back to school event, an outreach effort offering haircuts and hair styling to students of all ages and for free.

The Rev. Marcus Fairley, who pastors St. Luke, said the event was the brainchild of barber LaMyron Greene.

“He said he wanted to do this for the kids before they went back to school,” he said. “His mom does hair too, so she said she would get some ladies to help her. It just came to life from there.”

And come to life it did. Church members were also on site to offer attendees free school supplies like backpacks, paper, notebooks, pencils and more.

Others were in the kitchen, serving up hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and drinks, which many enjoyed while waiting on family members to be seen in the fellowship hall turned styling station.

Outside, event sponsors Salisbury-Rowan NAACP and The Polaris Law Firm were interacting with parents and children, answering questions and offering valuable education.

Gemale Black, local NAACP president, said student attendees were very interested in the work of his organization, asking how long it’d been around for, what the acronym stood for, what the group does and more.

He said the interactions were offering a lot of opportunities to show students how to fill out voter registration forms, so they would be prepared to do so when older.

Beyond that, he said, the event was a good opportunity to draw kids and families to the Hawkinstown area.

“We get a lot of traffic, but we don’t get a lot of people that come through,” he said. “This event was a good way to draw them into this area.”

Attendee Rodney Chambers, a member of Word of Life Church, said he’d come back to the event every year. He was out with 8-year-old granddaughter Camiya Chambers, as well as his daughter, grandson and wife.

He said the world needed more positive events such as Saturday’s.

“You’ve got to love everybody like you love yourself,” he said. “If you love yourself, you’re going to love everybody that way.”