About three years ago, school instructor Madelyn Johnson of Royal Beauty Careers in South Houston, Texas, was at a tradeshow and happened to mention to a Graham Beauty account manager that her students sometimes don’t have the disposable income to purchase school supplies. "Starting nail school can be quite costly in the beginning, with the cost of the course, books, and uniforms," Johnson says she relayed to the account manager. That account manager, Debbie Schlise, then approached her boss at Graham Beauty, Dave Albers, who authorized ongoing donations of the company’s products to the school.

“We want to say thank you to Graham Beauty for their continued support,” Johnson says. The donated products have included orangewood sticks, gloves, lint-free wraps, cotton pads, and HandsDown Soak-Off Gel Nail Wraps (which Johnson describes as a “must-have” with the popularity of gel-polish). Johnson takes Graham Beauty’s donations, along with any other donations she is able to gather for that semester, and packages them into “welcome kits” for the students.

“Their faces just light right up when they get their packets with all the goodies,” Johnson says.