Saskatoon spa students, staff raise money for Fort McMurray

Thestaff and students at a Saskatoon spa and teaching centre are rolling uptheir sleeves for thoseaffected by the forest fire that ravaged parts ofFortMcMurray earlier this month.

The moneycollected from Thursday'ssalon and spa treatments atMC College Salon and Spawill be donated to the Canadian Red Cross.

"Our staff and students were all very excited about it. We were looking forward to having lots of clients and making it a fun day to raise funds for Fort McMurray," said Saskatoon college directorVanessa Slater.

The day wasn't as busy as Slater would have liked, but she said clientswere still steady. The college washappy to do what they could to contribute.

"It's so, so rewarding. Yes, it's definitely rewardingwhen we know that we're giving back."

She hoped the other campuses had good attendance.MC College Salon and Spa has six locations in western Canada and all of them took part in the fundraiser.

"We have a few Fort McMurray students and actually some of our staff as well," said Chinda Sin, Marketing Coordinator for MC College Salon and Spa.

Their friends and families have been affected by the crisis, she added.

Thursdaywasn't the first timethe organization has raised moneyfornatural disaster victims.

Sin said they try to give back to the community when they can and said that mostmemorably, they raised fundscollectingclose to $7,000 in the aftermath of the Albertaflood of 2013.

The salon schoolsoffer many services,including but not limited to pedicures, hair colour and hair cuts.