Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Shawn Capozzi (center) of New River Valley Community Services watches as Linda Peak (right) has makeup applied by Brandy Smith at the Goodwill Store in Fairlawn on Thursday. Peak and Capozzi were paired together during the Project Styleburst makeovers.

FAIRLAWN -- Shawn Capozzi rifled through stuffed racks of clothing at the Goodwill shop here on a mission to boost morale.

She's a caseworker from New River Valley Community Services who transformed into a personal shopper for Project Styleburst. The evolving idea behind the project is to offer makeovers -- including a new outfit and a hairstyle -- to participants with NRVCS.

The community service nonprofit works with people who have been diagnosed with a range of mental health illnesses, such as retardation, schizophrenia or substance abuse. The agency also serves their families.

"I think the benefits of this extend beyond what we can see here today," said Brandy Smith, a Virginia Tech graduate student who studies counseling and is helping lead the project.

The full-service styling is designed to create smiles. Some participants wanted new ensembles for holiday gatherings or to impress long-estranged children. Others said they were just glad to have something new.

To get started with the makeover, Capozzi showed a soft, maroon flower-print shirt to Linda Peak, a woman diagnosed with multiple mental issues who can be wary of other people.

Peak, soft-spoken but curt, said she's simple and just interested in cozy clothes, not frills. The free haircut and makeup she would take away from the store were more than she had done for herself in years.

For the shopping excursion Thursday, Peak dressed in black shoes and a slate-blue matching sweat suit, which she bought last Christmas. She couldn't remember a time after that when she had purchased a whole new outfit, but she managed a feeble grin as Capozzi lifted a striped sweater and a blouse to add to her selections.

"I like that one better than this," she said, pointing to the blouse.

Ultimately, Peak emerged from the fitting rooms with two sweaters and a pair of jeans and then headed to phase two of her salon-style treatment -- a trained hair stylist poised with scissors.

Ellen Piilonen, a counselor for NRVCS, decided to start Styleburst and started choosing participants a few weeks ago. By the end of December, she hopes to pamper at least 70 people. The project would extend through next year, and include teens, if funding holds out.

Right now, donors have provided about $700 and companies have given free cosmetics and discounts on the clothing.

In all, the day of pampering costs about $10 a person, with no administrative fees, Piilonen said.

Regardless of cost, Piilonen worried more about helping people such as Peak as well as her fellow counselors, who worked hard after the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech.

"I think we were all just tired and wanted to do something happy," she said. Staffers earned their joyful moment as Becky Newberry, a Goodwill employee who volunteered to cut hair on her day off, started trimming Peak's hair.

"This feels good. Don't dry it. Just keep it wet. It feels good like this," Peak told the stylist as her smile widened.

At a makeup station afterward, Smith, the Tech student, talked her through putting on mascara, eye shadow and lipstick.

Each woman walked away from her makeover with those cosmetics, three articles of clothing and a container of perfume. Men received the clothes, a haircut and cologne.

Despite concerns about messing her wet hair, Peak smiled as she donned a yellow, blue and teal-striped cozy sweater before leaving the store.

"It's nice to pamper them. I mean, wouldn't everybody like this?" Smith asked. "It's extremely touching."