On May 4, 2007, the town of Greensburg, Kansas was hit by an F5 tornado. With estimated winds of 205 mph and a width of 1.7 miles, the tornado killed ten people and destroyed an estimated 95% of the town, including Debbie Boyle's salon, Last Angle. When Debbie returned the next day to survey the damage, all she could do was hang up the American flag she found underneath some debris. A local photographer took a picture of the flag, hanging outside the ruin of what was once Debbie's place of business.

The Greensburg tornado was a natural disaster of horrible proportions, but instead of looking at the leveled landscape and destruction as a death sentence, the city looked at this as an opportunity to start fresh. With no choice but to rebuild the entire city from the ground up, Greensburg made a revolutionary decision: to rebuild the town as the most eco-friendly, green city on the planet, a town built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum level standards. If you visit the Greensburg city website, greensburgks.org, you can learn all about the city's reconstruction efforts and their desire to become "a model for rural America."

Soon after news of the tornado hit, Bob Peel Jr., President of Peel's Salon Services, got involved. One of Bob's sales consultants let him know about the destruction of Debbie's salon and the fact that she didn't have any insurance coverage to help with the rebuilding process. Bob made the decision to fund the rebuilding of her salon to LEED Platinum level standards. "We're hoping that a couple of manufacturer's will be willing to help as well, but we are committed to the complete rebuilding of Debbie's salon, no matter what happens in terms of support."

When asked what he thinks of the green movement and building future salons to LEED standards, Bob answered, "It's just logical to anyone who has an equipment-to-design vision that green is the way to move forward and the right thing to do is support salons building to LEED standards. Plus, we can help our salons cut overhead and energy costs…I think it only makes sense for our industry and each individual business to try and be as eco-friendly as possible."

To help with the planning process of rebuilding the Last Angle as a green and sustainable salon, Bob turned to Edwin Neill III, President of the Neill Corp and a fellow member of the PBA Distributor Leadership Council for suggestions. "Edwin sent me a whole list of vendors who could help rebuild and the team used this list of vendors to put together a dream plan for a LEED salon that would meet the highest ratings."

Today, plans for the salon have come together and include energy-saving solar panels; skylights for natural lighting; cork flooring, a renewable, harvested resource; and a super energy-efficient hot water heater. With the plans still awaiting approval from the city, the construction is in the early stages, but Debbie's new, green salon will be built with a grand re-opening scheduled for the fall of 2008. On opening day, over 50 members of Peel's Salon Services school staff will journey to Greensburg to give every resident of Greensburg a makeover. When the salon is rebuilt, Debbie will proudly hang the flag she found in the debris of her former salon, along with the photo from the local photographer and will share her story of rebuilding and recovery.

In addition to rebuilding the Last Angle, Peel's was able to find and give 12 of the 18 hairdressers who operated throughout Greensburg prior to the tornado, a toolkit worth $1,000 to help in the process of recovering their livelihoods.

To learn more about the rebuilding of Debbie's salon to green standards and to see pictures of the construction, look for the second part of her story in the Fall 2008 issue of PBA Progress.
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