It is with deep regret that we announce, on Saturday, December 6th, a fire broke out at National Association of Estheticians and Beauty BarOne, around 3am. We would first like to sincerely thank both the St. Catharines and NOTL Fire Departments for their courage and dedication, service and support they provided for us.

Unfortunately, the fire ravaged the entire floor of our beauty school and tenants units in which was lost sentimental items, furniture, equipment, stock and much. The fire devastated the entirety of our 18 units, but also impacted the businesses upstairs and downstairs at 437 Welland Ave., St. Catharines. This tragedy has impacted dozens of businesses, students, and employees - many are without an income and workspace only days before Christmas.

The National Association of Estheticians is a beauty school established in 2020. I built this business with passion and hope for providing a way for young women to become independant and successful entrepreneurs, and with the hard work of many supportive women along the way. After completing many esthetics programs myself, and with a small business grant, I wrote 25 instructional books and began to launch our school - the National Association of Estheticians (NAE).

NAE provides training workshops to help women become successful beauticians at affordable pricing. We have certified over 400 students to date. We recently began scholarship and grant programs and to help fund low-income women, young women, and single mothers, to give them hope and financial independence for their future.

NAE not only survived 2 years of pandemic lockdowns while I was able to provide some online training, all while I went through a pregnancy and child-bearing myself. Furthermore, in March of this year, my husband and father of my child, Anthony Barone, tragically passed and from that I named the new location of the business, Beauty BarOne, in honor of him and our child. To say the least, 2025 has been an extremely difficult year, but I remain hopeful that we will thrive in 2026 and continue to empower young women, but not without the support of our community.

Not only does NAE provides training for aspiring Estheticians and young entrepreneurs, but Beauty BarOne has become home to over a dozen femmepreneurs who subleased spaces from me. Beauty BarOne has 18 units which provides work spaces to lash technicians, tattoo artists, beauticians, clothing designers, nurse Injectors and many more. Many of our entrepreneurs are single moms, young entrepreneurs, mothers, and women just beginning to build their businesses.

We are humbly asking our community to please consider making a monetary donation in ANY amount if you are able, to help us restore our small business spaces as well as our esthetics school.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your time and consideration, thoughts and prayers, at this most difficult time.