Ellen Mahler, a student at the Butler Beauty Academy, left, massages the hands of Jakie Fedorek, 80, of Chicora Thursday at the Chicora Senior Center. Beauty school students visited the center to provide free manicures and nail polishing for Mother's Day.

CHICORA — Chicora resident Betty Karenbauer flashed her newly painted lavender nails that coordinated with her purple outfit around the room.

“Check that baby!”

The smell of fresh polish and the sight of smiles filled Chicora Senior Center along with ohs and ahs as the seniors showed off their finished manicures to each other.

Visitors on Thursday morning to the center, located in the basement of the Moose Lodge at 117 W. Slippery Rock St., received basic manicures complete with nail shaping, light massage and a polish of their choice from students of the Butler Beauty Academy.

Chicora resident Maxine Craig spread out her hand as she looked at her fresh pink nails.

“I enjoyed it,” Craig said.

Craig, a regular center attendee on Tuesdays and Thursdays, said she had her nails done just in time for the evening's mother-and-daughter banquet she planned to attend.

Fenelton resident Sandy Bachman had her nails done as a pre-Mother's Day treat with her family.

“It was great,” Bachman said about her newly painted pink sparkling nails.

May is usually a busy month for the Butler Beauty Academy, said Paige Mennor, a cosmetology, student teacher and aesthetician instructor, adding the academy has three field trips planned this week for Mother's Day.

Once a month, students take a field trip to gain experience because the trip allows them to meet and talk to different people, she said.

Communication skills are important because the students will work in the customer service industry when they complete the program, she said.

“I think they really enjoy it, it's exciting to see how they act and play off each other,” Mennor said. “I think it makes them feel better, too.”

Kristina Funkhouser, center manager for the Chicora Senior Center, organized the treat from a special place.

In December, it will be two years since Funkhouser lost her mother, she said.

“These people are my support, they are special like family,” said Funkhouser. “I wanted to treat them and make them feel special and pretty for a day.”

Trista Fischer, 25, a student at the Butler Beauty School, paints the finger nails of Maxine Craig, 87, of Chicora, Thursday, May 10, at the Chicora Senior Center. HAROLD AUGHTON/BUTLER EAGLE