Sisters open unique Delco salon and welcome Eagles, cancer survivors

Three enterprising sisters who opened a beauty salon with a unique concept in Upper Darby earlier this month will host a breast cancer awareness event tomorrow that will feature half-a-dozen Eagles players as well as breast cancer survivors and their caretakers.

The sisters had an in to secure the Eagles players: One of them dates LeSean McCoy and another is his personal assistant, according to Trania Stroud, the eldest of the sisters, who said she is McCoy's assistant.

Trania, 35, and her sisters Tacara Kellam, 30 and Tiara Kellam, 26, opened Emerge Salon and Boutique just three weeks ago on Terminal Square near West Chester Pike. The shop is a hair salon, a clothing boutique and a space for women's forums - a business concept which cultivates the talents of all three women.

Trania has a background in education and psychology and hosts the women's forums, which include topics like how small business owners can develop retirement plans.

Tacara, who is dating McCoy, has a background in cosmetology and runs the salon and Tiara has a background in print modeling and runs the clothing boutique, Trania said.

"We wanted the salon to have a three-dimensional aspect," she said. "Beauty is cultivated from the inside and it blossoms and emerges on the outside."

Trania said the reception from the Upper Darby community has been great and she said they chose to open the shop in the township because she believes "this shopping district is being replenished and revitalized."

Tomorrow's event, which the sisters have dubbed "Cooking Up Awareness," is in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and will feature McCoy and some of his teammates in concessions trucks handing out gift bags, bags on information about early breast cancer detection and hot dogs and pretzels.

"Typically, concession areas serve up food, we're serving up awareness," Trania said.

The public is invited to the event, which is slated to take place from 4 to 6 p.m. outside the salon, but the most important part is taking place behind closed doors.

When they thought of the event, the sisters wrote to both the Susan G. Komen Foundation and to Fox Chase Cancer Center and asked them to put out word that they had an opportunity for survivors and their caretakers to have a private meeting with McCoy and a handful of his teammates.

Scores of women sent the sisters emails and tomorrow six of those women will be VIPs at the event and get to meet privately with the players inside of the salon.

"Wow, the impact of those stories that we read, it really put in perspective the impact of this disease and the necessity for detection," said Trania, who noted that the sisters lost their great grandmother to breast cancer.