Salon Raises Money In Memory Of Manager

It has been about three months since a Cost Cutters manager died protecting her co-workers and now they are making sure nobody forgets about Amanda Connors.

Stylists, partnered wtih Matrix Chairs of Change, held a cut-a-thon that raised more than $3,000 in Connors name. It brought in customers like Judy Sherman. 

"It was just a senseless tragedy. The whole community just couldn't believe it and then you sit and wonder what could I do to help?" Sherman said.

Sherman and several others answered the question by getting their hair cut. A minimum $10 donation helps set up the Amanda Connors scholarship at the Stewart School for Hairstyling.

"We're actually seeing a lot of new faces which has been great. A lot of support coming in and dropping off donations. Some even giving extra," Cost Cutters General Manager Kaylee Spolum said.

Twenty-four-year-old Connors was shot and killed in front of Cost Cutters on 41st Street in Sioux Falls by 38-year-old Tyrone Smith. Smith started the deadly chain of events when he went to his child's daycare and demanded his two young children at gunpoint.  Smith then drove to Cost Cutters where his girlfriend, who's the mother of the two children, was working.  Connors was outside at the time and called into the store to warn the girlfriend that Smith was coming.

Stewart, which is where Connors went, will match up to $2,000. Just two hours in, the cut-a-thon already had about $900.

"We're hoping to do it around her anniversary every year to keep the scholarship going in her name," Spolum said.

Spolum hired Connors right out of school and said she quickly made an impression.

"Even if she had a bad day, she would always put on a happy face and try to make everybody happy and have a good day at work," Spolum said.

Perhaps that is one of the reasons why Connors is the type of person Sherman and everybody else cannot stop talking about.

"She was amazing. I really wish I had met her, but at least I can do something to show I care," Sherman said.

Though the cut-a-thon is over, you can still donate.  Send your donation to the Cost Cutters at 2720 West 12th St. Suite 400, Sioux Falls, SD 57105.  Write "ATTN: Kaylee" on your envelopes.