The past three weeks haven’t been easy for Danika Wilkins. A single mom of four, she’s been battling depression after her son was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer. He’s only 11.
“The medicine is making him really tired and sick, so he’s depressed because he can’t play,” said Wilkins, 43. “They have to do a surgery and put a metal bracket in his leg and that might stop him from doing activities, but that will save him.”
A Chicago Transit Authority employee for nine years, Wilkins has had to take time off work to be with her son as he begins treatment at Rush University Medical Center.
“I’m really going through a hardship because I don’t have anything to help him,” said Wilkins.
But on Wednesday, Wilkins had a moment of relief. She was one of 100 women chosen for makeovers as part of the Chicago Housing Authority and Daisie Foundation’s Mother’s Day makeover celebration.
The event selected mothers facing hardships to “empower and inspire” them with “random acts of kindness,” said Julie Hightower, president of the Daisie Foundation executive board.
“We have two pillars, which is moms and children in underrepresented areas,” Hightower explained. This is the second year the group had partnered with CHA.
With music blaring, the moms spread out across two floors at Row 24, 2411 S. Michigan Ave., for eyebrow waxing, hairstyling, new makeup and new clothes. They also were given before and after photos.
For Wilkins, it was a total transformation. When her son was diagnosed, he had to cut his hair because the treatment was going to cause it to fall out. So, in a show of love and support, Wilkins had told him to cut her hair too — which he happily did, though he cut it much shorter than she thought he would.
But on Wednesday, she got her hair styled, a new dress and headshots she hopes to use on her portfolio.
Normally, Hightower said, the Daisie Foundation would make over 2,200 moms between 30 nonprofits in the city, but because of the pandemic, they scaled down to only 100 women this year.
Still, Bertha Watson was shocked when she walked into the venue Wednesday.
“I was like, ‘Wow, this is amazing! They’re doing all of this for us?’” said Watson, 59. Having the chance to get her eyebrows shaped and her lashes done, Watson was looking forward to getting her hair styled next.
Meanwhile, a few feet away from Watson, Sataria Martin had just finished getting her makeup done and was having her hair rebraided. Like many of the women there, she’d also been given a goodie bag with accessories, a new dress and a pair of sandals.
“It’s an experience where you can think about yourself for a while,” said Martin, 42. Martin has four children, and though one of her daughters is grown, she still has three little ones at home. “They give you makeup tips and I’m really enjoying it. I like being pampered,” she said with a laugh.
The women were recommended by CHA service provider partners and program staff, said Kristen Hamer, CHA director of corporate and external partnerships.
“Our instructions to them were, it’s Mother’s Day,” Hamer said. “Every mother deserves to be pampered for Mother’s Day, but who are the moms that have experienced a particular hardship recently that could really use this day of pampering?”
The CHA has a lot of mothers in their programs who have experienced job loss and even the loss of a family member within the last year, Hamer said.
That’s why it was so easy to find volunteers to provide the makeovers, said Row 24 owner Dana Fountain. All 25 stylists and makeup artists at Wednesday’s event were volunteers through Fountain’s organization, Pin Me Up Chicago.
“It’s great to give back to these moms,” Fountain said. “They don’t get the opportunity to maybe afford or have access to these services, and they deserve it.”
For both Hightower and Fountain, the most rewarding part of the day was simply seeing the smiles on the faces around them.
For Wilkins, it’s a chance to see a potential future, too.
“I feel beautiful, I’m having a nice time and I’m meeting a lot of people,” she said. But most of all, she added, it’s helped her keep her strength as she continues to pray for the health of her family.
Cheyanne M. Daniels is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South and West sides.
