Clippers buzzed and hair dryers hummed at Keystone Mission in Wilkes-Barre as barbers, hairdressers and a nail artist volunteered to serve the shelter’s guests.
“I think there’s like 40 people signed up to get their hair done today,” said Kathy Regan, Operations Director at the Innovation Center in Wilkes-Barre. “This is the first time of this magnitude that this many people have come to do this.”
An event of this magnitude would have been impossible only a year ago, Regan said. Keystone Mission only operated a pop-up shelter then, offering a place to sleep during the frigid “Code Blue” nights they coordinated with the city of Wilkes-Barre.
Keystone Mission's Innovation Center for Homelessness and Poverty opened over the summer. Now, they offer overnight shelter 365 days a year and meals and programs during the day, all in one place.
This week, five salons and barbershops sent volunteers to offer haircuts for guests of Keystone Mission. Regan said they’d hosted this type of event before, but never on such a large scale - and never with a nail artist or even hairdryers available.
Yameli Perez coordinated the volunteers for the haircut event. She runs the "Latinos Unidos" Facebook group. It translates to "Latinos United."
The hairdressers worked all day helping as many guests as they could. Around 10:30 on Wednesday morning, every hairdresser and barber had a guest in their chair, Lesly Santiago was painting a volunteer’s nails, and Perez said a makeup artist was also on the way.
“I feel great, I feel blessed and (I’m) thanking all of my community,” Perez said. “The community in two years has helped me so much with helping others like this.”
Mike Ham, a guest at the shelter, had his hair and beard trimmed by Omar Vasquez from Martha’s Beauty Salon. Ham said his beard had been overdue for a trim.
“They’ve been really kind around here,” Ham said. “They help you when you need it.”
Vasquez wanted to volunteer as soon as he saw Perez’s post on Latinos Unidos.
“I’m always open to help,” he said. “I communicated with all of my friends, and we’re here to support.”

‘We’ve been to the max’
Since the Innovation Center opened over the summer, Regan said they’ve been at maximum capacity almost every night.
“Right now we're averaging usually between 65 and 75 people coming in at night,” she said. “Usually about 18 to 20 of them are women.”
The center has introduced nightly meals on top of the programs it provides during the day to help people find stable housing.
Now, as winter weather starts to arrive, Regan said they’re anticipating an “uptick” in guests.
In previous years, Keystone Mission would work with the city to declare a Code Blue when temperatures were set to drop below 20 degrees or other wintry conditions made staying outside unsafe. On Code Blue nights, they’d establish a temporary overnight shelter.
Despite the increase in guests, Regan said having the permanent shelter has “worked out better.”
“We don’t have to look at staffing and say, okay, we need somebody three days this week,” she said. “We’re always prepared.”
Jillian Mirro, Keystone Mission’s communications director, said there’s often a line outside the building on East Union Street.
“If you drive past here in the evening, right before the shelter’s open, you will see the amount of people that are just lined up, bundled up, just waiting to get in,” she said. “Waiting to get a warm meal, waiting to get a hot shower, to be able to just lay their head somewhere and know they’re in a safe space.”
This first winter has already been “eye-opening” for Regan as she sees guests come and go.
“We see a lot of senior citizens, people who … there is not any affordable housing for them,” she said. “So, you know, we’re just trying to manage the best that we can with the space that we have.”
Help needed year-round
This week’s free haircut event was only one program that Keystone Mission has planned for the coming weeks.
On Dec. 23, Keystone Mission’s Innovation Centers in both Scranton and Wilkes-Barre will host a Christmas meal for anyone experiencing homelessness. The Scranton center will start serving at 12 p.m., while dinner will be served at 4 p.m. in Wilkes-Barre.
Regan said Latinos Unidos has put together a group to provide the food in Wilkes-Barre, but they are looking for volunteers to help serve meals and sit down with guests for a meal.
“We try to make it like a traditional holiday meal,” she said.
But the need for help doesn’t end after the holidays or the winter months have passed, Regan said. Every day, Keystone Mission offers programming to help guests access benefits and apply for financial or housing assistance, on top of the services like laundry and showers that the shelter provides.
“We don’t want to look a year down the line and see that the same people are here,” Regan said. “We want to make sure they’re getting the assistance they need.”
In the lobby, Emma Coons tousled her freshly cut and styled hair.
“Everybody deserves to feel good, and these guys were blessed enough to come out and give everybody free haircuts,” she said. “I appreciate that, because it's hard in our situation to be able to go and enjoy something luxurious.”
She’s been staying at Keystone Mission for a while, but not for much longer. She had just been approved for an apartment.
“It’s been a life-changer,” she said. “I’m going to be moving out the end of the week, but I’ve even asked to come back…so that I can help them out, because this is a great program to be in if you’re in a bad situation.”