Volunteer Spotlight: Daniela Hernandez-Salas, Lubbock, Texas

We continue our National Volunteer Week blog series by highlighting Daniela Hernandez-Salas, a Look Good Feel Better volunteer from Lubbock, Texas who has been recognized with the 2017 Look Good Feel Better National Sunrise Award in the Look Good Feel Better Certified Volunteer category.

Daniela Hernandez-Salas

Daniela Hernandez-Salas of Lubbock, Texas is a recipient of the 2017 Look Good Feel Better National Sunrise Award.

Daniela has been a volunteer with Look Good Feel Better for 25 years, a testament of her devotion and selfless dedication to helping people battling cancer. Not only does Daniela facilitate Look Good Feel Better group patient workshops in her home city, but she also serves as an Area Trainer for new volunteers throughout Texas and nearby states. Daniela’s passion and dedication can be credited to her mother, Bella, who is a program graduate and also a long-term Look Good Feel Better volunteer.

We asked Daniela a few questions about her experience with Look Good Feel Better, and here is what she had to say:

What brought you to Look Good Feel Better? 

Everyone has intrinsic beauty. No matter the situation being faced, a person feels better when they look good and when their inner beauty is highlighted for the world to see. The name Look Good, Feel Better embodies this truth and inspires me to serve others.

What has been your most memorable moment with Look Good Feel Better and why?

There is one patient who has been my inspiration and my guiding light through LGFB as well as my life: Bella, my beautiful mother. Mom is a pioneer in the beauty industry and is a long term LGFB program volunteer. I remember the day I went to a workshop and there she was, not as a volunteer, but as a patient. The honor of being able to serve her, to share the knowledge and compassion she had taught me through the years, to use my hands to apply make-up and fit wigs – It was a special moment. As I looked at mom, she whispered, “I’m very proud of you.” My heart swelled with pride. That day, my sweet momma helped to keep the flame of service and dedication to LGFB alive in my soul. Her words, her encouragement, and her passion is what keeps me going and growing.

What is your favorite section of the program? Is there a particular reason?

As a little girl, I remember seeing my mother and father work in our family’s boutique/salon. I recall the joy the magical transformation brought to customer’s faces when they put on a new wig.

That magic is so meaningful when it is a patient who has lost their hair and is being fitted for the first time. The huge smile it brings to their face, as they look in the mirror and see their inner beauty shining through – It warms my heart and fills the room with love and excitement.

But, the magic doesn’t stop with the wigs! No, it continues to the make-up, especially the eyebrows. When someone has completely lost their eyebrows from treatment, teaching them how to draw them on brings them instant confidence and is so rewarding.

Truly, I love everything about LGFB. Through this program, I am able to assist patients look as beautiful to the world as they truly are inside. I help them select their wigs, I call them crowns, and I get to see them embrace their confident self. I get much more out of the program than I ever put into it.

Why do you continue to volunteer with Look Good Feel Better, or why would you recommend it to others?

LGFB is a family, a team of volunteers around the world, dedicated to helping others look good and feel better. Every patient I have had the honor of serving becomes part of my family.

I have also been honored to work with several of my own family members as LGFB patients. For me, Bella, my beautiful mother who first taught me about beauty, my Aunt Linda, who could apply lipstick as she was jogging, and my sweet Tia Chavella, who wouldn’t stop hugging her box of LGFB cosmetics are my inspirations. LGFB helped them to look their best and gave them the gift of confidence.

Mom, Aunt Linda, Tia Chavella, and all of the beautiful patients I’ve met over the past 25 years are what keeps me going. They are the wind beneath my wings. I do it for them.