“Whatever total you want to put in the jar is wonderful by me,” he tells his customers, all of whom are male residents in his neighborhood, Applewood Pointe in Minnetonka, Minn.
All donations go to Arm in Arm in Africa — a Minnesota-centered organization that Gorzycki and his spouse, Mary, have volunteered with for several a long time. The nonprofit supports lousy communities in South Africa by providing foods, well being treatment and educational chances.
In the 5 many years that he’s been slicing hair absolutely free, Gorzycki has raised far more than $10,000 for Arm in Arm in Africa.
“I’m gratified by what I do to feed my pals in South Africa,” he stated.
Barbering has been Gorzycki’s lifestyle for 7 decades. He learned how to slash hair when he joined the U.S. Navy in 1952. Although on a Navy ship, Gorzycki began viewing the barber on board do his task. He was intrigued.
“I would aid, and by way of demo and error, I obtained fairly very good at it,” stated Gorzycki, who fought in the Korean War.
He soon became the ship’s barber, and he also ran the ship keep, which marketed toiletries, cigarettes and confections to military services members.
Just after he remaining the assistance in 1956, Gorzycki enrolled in barber college in Minneapolis and subsequently opened a salon termed Tom’s Barbershop. From then on, he was acknowledged as “Tom the barber.”
“I had my possess store for 36 many years,” he reported. “It was a neighborhood shop, so I acquired to know the individuals. We bought to be good friends.”
In quite a few instances, he said, he gave young ones their first haircut and then, 20 a long time later, he minimize their hair on their wedding day day. Viewing his shoppers improve up was his most loved component of the career.
“I adore reminiscing now,” Gorzycki stated.
In his retirement, he and his spouse focused on volunteer endeavours to fill their time. Via their church, they acquired about Arm in Arm in Africa — which operates in three different places of South Africa — and they were eager to get involved.
“We hit the floor jogging,” Gorzycki reported.
The few frequented South Africa two times with the group — in 2012 and 2015 — for 3-week volunteering stints in which they assisted organize food stuff distributions and other initiatives.
“We would go in there and greet them and expend time just getting there with them,” Gorzycki mentioned.
“We had been just so amazed with the persons, the friendliness, the acceptance,” he additional. “We’re all household now.”
What struck Gorzycki most about the South Africans he fulfilled, he reported, is that “they are the most generous with what minor they have.”
Far more than the moment, he witnessed individuals sharing their allotment of food with other folks who required it additional.
“They are all bad, and yet they are willing to allow go of it so any person else can have it,” explained Gorzycki, who stated he also grew up in poverty.
His mom, he explained, taught him to help some others any time possible.
“I in no way imagined of it at the time, but it was my mother’s affect that instilled me with this capacity to access out and give,” he said, introducing that he also volunteers weekly at the area Veterans Affairs medical center — which he has been doing for just about two decades. “She was very generous.”
Arm in Arm in Africa is grateful for Gorzycki’s ongoing contributions — and touched by his unwavering dedication to the bring about, reported Pat Dawson, government director of the corporation.
“He has designed a enormous difference in our growth,” Dawson said. “Tom’s private offering goes significantly further than his barbershop offering.”
“Tom is just this kind of a remarkably humble and inspiring guy,” he continued. “He’s been amazingly generous and a design of the variety of particular person we’d enjoy 10,000 of in our group.”
Although he’s not traveling to South Africa any more, Gorzycki claimed he plans to carry on supporting the induce he cares deeply about even though executing what he enjoys: reducing hair, aiding some others and earning close friends in the system.
John Richards, 71, is a regular client at the basement barbershop, where by Gorzycki has set up a chair, a mirror and a modest station with his tools as perfectly as a framed image of South African little ones and a jar for donations. Richards will come in for a haircut just about every few weeks and often leaves a $20 invoice.
“You get a terrific earth-course haircut from a environment-course barber, and you get to support feed people in Africa,” Richards explained. “It’s a get-win for everybody.”
“It’s a pretty common service,” he extra. “Everyone is familiar with his several hours. Even people who do not want haircuts will go down there to socialize with most people.”
Gorzycki provides haircuts just about every Tuesday concerning 10 and 11:30 a.m. The same inhabitants routinely surface for a new cut, while some new kinds trickle in from time to time.
As significantly as quantities go, “I’ve experienced any where from a person to 9,” mentioned Gorzycki, who has 6 youngsters, 4 stepchildren, five grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren.
He no for a longer period cuts women’s hair, he explained, since it can be extra complicated to trim and style.
“Senior adult men haircuts are much easier, due to the fact a lot of us do not have a great deal of hair left,” he claimed with a chortle.
Gorzycki has no ideas to halt his haircutting attempts. His basement barbershop, he mentioned, keeps him busy and fulfilled.
“As long as I nevertheless have a continual hand, I’ll retain likely,” Gorzycki mentioned.
