SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - When local salon owner Samantha Kidston heard the story of Kamyrn Bond, the one-year-old baby girl affectionately known as "Kammy" who had both her legs, her right hand, and parts of her left hand amputated to save her life in March, she knew her business had to help in some way.

Euphora Hair Spa owner Samantha Kidston says her salon raised $7,700 for amputee baby Kamyrn Bond on Sunday, May 15. - Ian Vaydik/NNSL photo

Not only did Kidston remember having Kammy's mom, Dale, as a classmate at Sir John Franklin High School, but baby Kammy's case struck her hard as a parent.

"As a mom, that totally hit me that this happened to a healthy baby," Kidston said. "It could have happened to any baby.

"I wanted to do something to raise money for the family and why not do something I know how to do?"

Kidston and her staff at Euphora decided to donate all the salon's proceeds to baby Kammy on May 15, in an extremely successful and rewarding fundraising effort, according to Kidston.

"It went really, really well," Kidston said. "We were crazy busy the whole day, which was awesome."

All six service chairs were constantly full Sunday, and Kidston said they provided 115 haircuts for donations, compared to about 40 on a regular business day.

Along with walk-in cash and cheque donations and a silent hair products auction, the shop raised a total of $7,700 in just six hours.

While supporting baby Kammy's family was a no-brainer for Kidston and the many other local businesses that generously contributed, the pressure to support community causes throughout the year can weigh heavily on small businesses, who have less leeway when it comes to balancing corporate citizenship with their bottom line.

While last Sunday's fundraiser was Kidston's idea, she says the salon is approached very often to support various causes.

"As a business we get asked all the time for all sorts of things," she said. "But we can't support everyone or donate to everything.

Kidston said her five-year-old business suffered some growing pains but has now reached a position where they are able to give back to the community more.

She decides to contribute to community causes on a case-by-case basis, but believes that every business should have a donation fund set aside for the community they serve.

"It's an obligation," Kidston said. "The community is doing for you by supporting your business so you need to give back."

According to Industry Canada's website, corporate social responsibility makes companies more innovative, productive, and competitive, promoting favourable relations with the investment community and improving access to capital.

The website states corporate social responsibility can also be used as a business strategy, because it improves a company's reputation and branding.

However, Kidston said she has no set business strategy when it comes to supporting community causes and the fundraiser for Kammy had nothing to do with promoting her business image or increasing profit.

"We didn't do this event for anything other than wanting to help that baby girl out," Kidston said.

Penny McHugh, co-owner of Hot Shots Pub & Grub, also said she and her husband Roger Ladouceur felt compelled to support baby Kammy's cause with no thought to how the business would benefit.

Hot Shots raised more than $15,000 last Friday for baby Kammy's family along with the Yellowknife Soccer Association, donating proceeds from their meat raffle and karaoke night.

"We all pitched in," McHugh said. "That's the community we have here, it's wonderful."

While she says supporting community causes is an integral part of the local business community in Yellowknife, she understands the strategic benefits of such corporate citizenship.

"We do benefit in a sense by having guaranteed people show up, having fun, spending money," McHugh said. "We also create more clientele as people start to realize where we are and who we are."

She said Hot Shots tries to help out every group that approaches them in some way, and the business has never been put at risk by their charitable ventures.

"We wouldn't put ourselves in that predicament and I don't think anyone would ask us to either," she said.

Social responsibility has benefits beyond financial gain for a company, Kidston said, noting how the effort to support Kammy's family was a great bonding experience for the staff at Euphora.

"All of us were so pumped the whole day," Kidston said. "It's a pretty amazing feeling."

To date, Yellowknifers have fundraised or donated more than $50,000 for Kammy and her family.

The baby's limbs were amputated after she contracted a respiratory syncytial virus in March, which caused her young body to undergo a dangerous drop in blood pressure.

Kammy and her parents, Dale and Allan Bond, are currently at Ronald McDonald House in Edmonton waiting for Kammy to be fitted for prosthetic legs.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.