In celebration of Look Good Feel Better’s 25th year in Canada, we’ve named 25 Heritage Heroes who have helped the charity make it to 25 inspiring years of helping women and teens with cancer feel like themselves again, or currently play an important role and provide a powerful voice to keep the program alive for years to come.
Each of our 25 Heritage Heroes – one for each year of our program – exemplifies the very essence of Look Good Feel Better’s mission to empower and support women with cancer.
Mississauga’s Lynda Rose has been a Look Good Feel Better supporter since its inception.
A veteran of the cosmetics industry, she attended the first-ever Mirror Ball – the charity’s annual fundraising gala – then called, the Crystal Ball in 1991.
“I just remember being incredibly proud that, as an industry, we were representing this cause,” Rose said.
That pride has only grown as she became the General Manager of Mary Kay Canada, a company that’s supported the cause since Day One.
It not only makes annual donations (having just donated $100,000 Sept. 30), but many of its 36,000 Sales Representatives also donate their time as Look Good Feel Better volunteers.
“It’s their way of giving back to the community,” Rose said of her generous employees. “They are passionate about the mission, they are passionate that, as a cosmetics company, we’re doing more than just selling lipstick.”
“It’s not about them growing their business – it’s about helping a woman in crisis or in need.”
It was one of Mary Kay’s top sales directors, Sharon Coburn, who helped bring Look Good Feel Better to Canada, alongside then Mary Kay general manager Ray Patrick, two-time cancer survivor Sherry Abbott (who worked at Revlon at the time), a Toronto oncology team and other members of the beauty industry 25 years ago.
Coburn unfortunately died in 2012, after battling cancer for more than 20 years, but her legacy lives on at Mary Kay through its unwavering support of Look Good Feel Better.
“We have a long, proud heritage and tradition with Look Good Feel Better and we’re very proud of that,” said Rose. “We just know that a woman, when she wears makeup, when she uses great skin care - she feels better.”
Rose feels a great “sense of pride” to be named a Heritage Hero alongside five of her Sales Representatives, Maria Bennett, Darlene Olsen, Linda James, Diane Peel and Jacinta Stewart.
“Every cosmetic company out there should do whatever they can to support this cause. We started it 25 years ago as a cosmetic industry and we need to continue to support it as an industry,” she said. “It’s a responsibility that we, as an industry need to own."
"We can change lives by supporting this foundation."
