Giving back: Local barbershop provides free haircuts to Harmony students

Barber Edgar “Chino” Perez and owner of Chino’s Barbershop offers free haircuts to Harmony Science Academy Brownsville students Wednesday afternoon. (Miguel Roberts/The Brownsville Herald)

Chino’s barbershop donated 20 haircuts to students at Harmony Science Academy as a way of giving back to the community to celebrate the five-year anniversary of the business.

Edgar Perez, Chino’s barbershop owner, said he and his team wanted to do something good for the community now that the school year is about to finish. He said the students are the future of the community.

“More than anything, it was because our fifth-year anniversary is coming up and the school is ending. We pretty much wanted to do something good for the community, give back to the kids, give back to the future of our community. Just to thank everybody. Five years and counting and we’ll hopefully keep going,” he said.

“We have a lot of clients that are students, that are kids, so just to give back to the kids. I remember how it was going back to school and being, myself, from a low-income family, how hard it is to come up with money for something as simple as a haircut.”

Georgette Betancourt Medellin, campus outreach coordinator, said she believes it is always great to find businesses and organizations that are able to offer their services to the students in a variety of ways.

“For example, what is happening today is ‘pay it forward,’ giving back to our community. The students have struggled with this virtual world, the current pandemic, and then being able to see that people care about them and that they’re able to give back to them with this free haircut, it can help build their self-esteem,” she said.

Betancourt Medellin said the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the community in many different ways and getting a free haircut can make a big impact in families who are going through a rough patch. She said she is hopeful that the next school year more students will be able to go back in person to the classroom.

“My expectations and my hope is that we are able to come back at 100 percent. Of course, we do still have a few families that might be a little skeptical about coming back at 100 percent normalcy, but that’s what I expect,” she said.

Joel Alaffa, campus principal, said being connected with the community is important for them because they want to make sure that the school stands out and takes opportunities so that they are more involved with the community.

“Being connected with the community is important for us because we want to make sure that we stand out and take opportunities,” he said.

“For the parents, school and outside stakeholders to be able to see that we are giving back to the students as much as we can. Even during these tough times that we are dealing with the pandemic situation.”