Toni & Guy students show style
Models Bailey Bird, Felice Rose, Meranda Roe and Nicky Eismont are featured on this cover of Dye Magazine.
Courtesy of Rick Szymanski
Jefferis
Berggren
Students at the local Toni & Guy Hairdressing Academy are stylin’ big time.
A group of them at the Penn Commercial Business/Technical School in South Strabane Township entered a photo competition organized by Dye Magazine, an industry publication. The students not only made an impact, but are featured on the cover of the edition of Dye that came out late last month.
MacKenzie Miller, director of Toni & Guy, said in a statement: “With all of the challenges our students have had to deal with over the last 12 months, this opportunity came along at the perfect time. They were so excited just to do a creative hair fashion shoot with models. Then when the series was accepted by Dye, they couldn’t wait until it was released.”
Dye, which focuses on bright and colorful hairstyles, released its 36th issue April 23. The students based at Penn Commercial, however, did not know until the day before that they had made the cover. Dye had control over the images until the edition was published.
“They sent us final tear sheets for the issue,” Miller said. “Our spread was 24 pages long, which is amazing.”
Dye began to promote the contest in December, and Tabatha Rader, administrative assistant with Toni & Guy, alertly picked up on that.
“I thought it would be a fun experience for them, and a great way to build their portfolios,” she said. “It was a lot of work. From finding models, to designing looks, and then building a set in one of our classrooms, it’s so great to see it all paid off.”
Photo shoots were held on successive Fridays in early February. The students worked with 10 models, and because only a few agreed to have their hair dyed, the stylists had to be creative. They used wigs, extensions and temporary hair coloring.
The theme was “Celebration,” so models wore sparkly dresses and other New Year’s Eve-like attire, amid a colorful backdrop.
Two months later, the Penn Commercial-based students were triumphant.
Toni & Guy has 14 locations in nine states, including South Strabane and Erie in Pennsylvania.
Peacock Keller
Peacock Keller LLP recently hired two attorneys: Timothy R. Berggren and Natalie N. Jefferis.
Berggren was previously a partner at Berggren & Turturice LLC for 14 years, before becoming a sole practitioner. He concentrates on school and municipal law, business law and estate administration.
Jefferis is involved with the firm’s Energy Group. She previously was an attorney in West Virginia, focusing on energy-related matters, and was a title landman at EQT Production Co. Jefferis also is a member of the LPGA Amateur Golf Association.
Baker’s
Baker’s Waterproofing, which has numerous locations in Southwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio, has been acquired by Groundworks Companies, a large foundation services firm.
Baker’s has served the tri-state for nearly a half-century. It has locations in Washington, Greene, Fayette and Westmoreland counties.
Labor & Industry updating to new computer system
Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor & Industry has been laboring throughout the pandemic with an antiquated computer system for its Unemployment Compensation program.
The beleaguered 40-year-old system has had to deal with a massive increase in the number of UC claimants, who lost work because of the health crisis. The system has worked – but haltingly, not efficiently, creating processing delays and angering a lot of residents.
The upgrade, however, means the antiquated system is scheduled to go offline to users for nine days, from May 30 through June 7. Claims will not be processed during the shutdown, which will enable data to move from the old system to the upgraded one.
L&I has been conducting workshops on the new system for claimants. Two are set for Saturday, May 22: at 2 p.m. (Spanish) and 3:30 p.m. (English). One is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Wednesday (English) and two on Thursday (English at 6 p.m., Spanish at 7:30.)
For more information, visit www.uc.pa.gov.