Ministry uses passages from Bible to draw out inner beauty, morality

“To them that mourn in Zion ... give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness ...”

— Isaiah 61:3

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

PHILADELPHIA — Her youthful “trees of righteousness” were lined up in a hallway on a recent afternoon, peering over one another’s shoulders, itching to strut their stuff.

But Tanya Powell, 32, took a moment to remind the audience that this fashion show was not about the clothes, but about the youngsters themselves.

“A lot of our children in the inner city need another outlook on life,” she told the 25 mothers and aunts and grandmothers and friends sitting at tables at the West Philadelphia Community Center on Haverford Avenue.

In less than a minute, her speech about the shootings and the blood on the sidewalks, about Jesus and self-esteem, poise and posture, etiquette and manners had the audience clapping.

“At Beauty for Ashes Inc.,” she said, “we teach that beauty comes from the inside out.”

Powell, who calls herself an evangelist, then glanced at the deejay, and as music pulsed through the loudspeakers, she smiled toward the children waiting in the hall.

Moments later, Jayden Drummond stepped onto the gym-floor “runway” to a round of applause.

And if her runway walk seemed a little uncertain — a few steps to the left, an uncertain glance at “Miss Tanya,” a twirl, a giggle — it was probably because Jayden is only 3.

She was followed by some uncertain 5-year-olds, then some confident 8-year-olds, and finally the teenagers, who carried themselves with style and sophistication.

With heads up and shoulders back, some paused, hands on hips, and eyed the crowd.

Others gazed straight ahead, too cool for the room, strutting toward the head table with what can only be called runway swagger. A few smiled, or waved, or did pirouettes, before heading off.

It was the third annual “Tea With the Queen” fund-raiser luncheon for the nonprofit Beauty for Ashes, which Powell calls a “Bible-based modeling and etiquette school for disadvantaged youth.”

The idea came to Powell in a dream, she said.

“It was five years ago. I was pregnant with my youngest daughter when I just woke up with this idea,” she explained last week in an interview at the Mantua Community Center, where she holds some of her classes. She was joined by her two daughters and three pupils.

“I started writing, half awake, in a composition book, and filled it halfway up with ideas about Scripture passages that could teach children about beauty within, and morality and confidence.

“And when I read it over, I screamed. I said, ‘God, do you really want me to do this?’”

The answer, it seems, was yes.

Powell earned an associate degree in finance at Community College of Philadelphia, wrote bylaws, put together a board of directors, earned nonprofit status, and found sponsors and donors among such big names as Caviar Assouline in Philadelphia, Longwood Gardens, Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts.

The “queen” at the fashion show was Samantha Johnson, Miss Pennsylvania USA 2007. She urged the children to be “fearless” in their pursuit of their dreams.

Powell structures her program into 12-week courses, with classes held Saturdays, usually in community centers as space is available.

Classes are open to boys and girls and, although Bible-based and Christian, to all faiths. Several of her students are Muslim, she said: “We’re not a church. We’re a ministry.”

Lessons focus on grooming, dress and manners, including table manners, all reinforced with a steady stream of Old and New Testament passages. A reminder to bathe regularly, for example, might include a nudge from Ephesians 5:2: “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”

Practicing with porcelain and stainless — “I hate plastic,” Powell said — the youngsters learn how to set the table, how to sit, and how to grip a teacup. Boys are even taught to pull out chairs for girls.

“We learn to cross our feet at the ankles, like this,” explained the very proper Alleisha Outlaw, 9, who demonstrated.

“But boys cross their legs this way,” said her 8-year-old brother, Kenny, crossing his ankle on his knee.

“Girls also sit down like this,” said Alleisha, smoothing her skirt under her before taking a seat. “And they put their handbags on the floor by their chair.

“But most of all I learned you have to be your own self, not following other people,” she said. “I learned that from Miss Tanya.”

Powell’s sense of mission was formed, she said, by the many hurts of her own childhood. “I was picked on so much, teased and bullied, I just withdrew on my insides. I had such low self-esteem.”

It was not until her 20s, when her wedding photographer told her she could be a model, that Powell began to appreciate her own worth.

She became a commercial and runway model and won several beauty contests, including Mrs. Philadelphia Globe, before starting Beauty for Ashes. Its name comes from a passage in Isaiah.

“The ashes are the bad things these children go through in life,” she said. “But we are trying to restore them, giving them beauty. We try to give them joy for their tears.”

Aleia Woodall, 13, of Norristown, said that she “took a lot” out of the course. Her grades improved “because she taught us to focus on grades and school, not what all your friends are doing. You learn to carry yourself as a young woman.

“It’s learning to like yourself and to be yourself,” she said. “That’s a good feeling.”

XTo learn more about Beauty for Ashes Inc., call (215) 877-1515.