South Dundas Mayor Jason Broad, Deputy Mayor Marc St. Pierre, and Councillor Tom Smyth joined with Suzanne Benoit for the official ribbon cutting and grand opening of Luma Salon and Sanctuary. Tinkess Photo

MORRISBURG – With grey skies and intermittent rain, Sat., May 24 wasn’t a whole lot to get excited about, unless of course you were one of the many people who took advantage of the opportunity to visit Morrisburg’s newest small business, Luma Salon and Sanctuary.

Located in the Morrisburg Plaza, at 93 Main St., the facility has been fully renovated from top to bottom, and between the expanse of glass, an amazing chandelier, and a very comfy couch, it exudes a feeling of self-care, which is exactly what Suzanne Benoit, “the woman behind the chair” was aiming for.

If a successful grand opening can be determined on numbers alone, then Luma Salon certainly achieved it, as there were wall-to-wall people from 11:00 a.m. with a steady stream of visitors throughout the morning and early afternoon.

South Dundas Mayor Jason Broad, along with Deputy Mayor Marc St. Pierre, Councillor Tom Smyth, and CAO Ben de Haan were in attendance, as was a representative of MPP Nolan Quinn, and later in the day MP Eric Duncan.  Mayor Broad spoke briefly before the ribbon cutting about how good it is to see new business become established in South Dundas.

“I’m excited to have another opening in South Dundas, as our storefronts continue to be full and it’s exciting for a young person like Suzanne, a young family, to have a great opportunity here when the building came up for sale,” said Mayor Broad. “They were able to jump on that and make this awesome storefront.

“On behalf of Municipality of South Dundas and all its residents, I want to congratulate you and recognize you on the opening of your salon and sanctuary.”

Benoit spoke passionately about her journey to create Luma, and the help she had along the way. “So today marks huge milestones, the grand opening of my new business. I’m filled with overwhelming gratitude. The past few years haven’t been too easy as I worked hard to support myself, and  my two girls, but what got us through was incredible support from all you, my friends, my family and my community, your kindness, your encouragement and the belief in me have meant more than words can say, every kind comment, every helping hand, every moment of understanding helped carry us to this point. I truly cannot have done this alone.

“From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of my daughters. Thank you for standing by us. We are so grateful to have you in our lives.”

Luma Salon and Sanctuary has a long list of available services, from haircuts and styles (men, women and children), hair colouring,  manicures and pedicures and much, much more. You can find out more about the full selection of services by visiting their website at lumasalon.ca.

It seems, in many ways that South Dundas is the place to be. “We’re growing,” commented Mayor Broad. “People have ambitions and when an opportunity comes up,  people jump on the opportunities right away and get their businesses open. It’s great, you know, in this case, we filled another unit around the corner with the sale of this building. So, things are really, really looking up in South Dundas.”