By Susie Davidson

Advocate Correspondent

On Sunday, November 4, from 12-5:00 p.m., ten Newbury Street salons will join together to help the victims of the terrorist attacks, with proceeds from all services going directly to the September 11th Fund.

"We are proud to have brainstormed an event," says Ida Faber, a prime organizer of this effort and business manager of Salon Mario Russo at 9 Newbury St., "which has resulted in such solidarity in an industry not always known for its social consciousness."

Other participating salons include Acote Salon, Avanti Salon, Back Bay Hair Design, EcoCentrix, I Soci Salon, Ibelle Hair Design, Incha’s Nail and Skin Care, L’Elegance Art Et Coiffure and Stephan Coiffure.

In addition, on November 8th at the Lansdowne Street nightclub Avalon, Mario Russo will set up a "Benefit Bar" where his newly created, olive oil-based products will be sold, with all proceeds benefiting the victims of September 11th's devastation.

But that's not all. "A portion of the proceeds from our new olive-based product line, due to come out this winter, including our liquid 'Lend a Hand Soap' and 'Lend a Hand Creme', will be donated to charity as well," says Faber.

"Mario has a longstanding tradition of generous participation in philanthropic pursuits," she continues, "and we wanted to make sure that our latest venture had a permanent and tangible charitable component."

Faber herself merits significant accolades within the realms of management and contribution.

"Ida Faber," says public relations consultant Alicia Gordon, "is a wonderful, highly accomplished, very creative woman, putting amazing education to work in a non-traditional setting."

Faber, 31, was eager and ready to serve her community at an early age, as her Judaic background in small, coastal Rockland, Maine, attests. "Our synagogue, a converted church," she recalls, "had at the time 80 families. I am proud to be the fifth generation to worship there. We had no rabbi - in my teenage years I led yahtzeit services and Friday night services. Growing up, my brother and I 'led' Friday night services each week in my house for my parents and grandmother. I learned the prayers and my Bat-Mitzvah, Shabbat services, Torah, Haftorah, etc. by tape. We had Rabbi Sumners, from Boston, officiate."

She quickly shifts back to Mario. "I first learned about Mario when he won Best of Boston in Boston Magazine a decade ago. I became a client over the years and finally, in 1998, upon graduation from business school, he suggested that I work for him while he took his annual summer vacation in Italy. The rest, as they say, is history."

Clearly, Mario knew a good thing. The Boston University MBA and M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology and Tufts B.A. is a highly-experienced businesswoman who is also a member of the Adjunct Faculty at Suffolk University, teaching Organizational Development and Marketing to graduate students (where she also chairs its Boston alumni volunteer program evaluating prospective students), and has served as Coordinator of Student Programs at MIT, consultant for A.B. Schwartz of Watertown and career counselor at BU.

She continues her class act at Mario's. "Haircuts range from $55-$205," she says. "We've been fortunate to receive lots of editorial coverage regionally as well as in Vogue, Allure, Town & Country and Elle. Our product line is available in our salons, at Louis Boston, Colonial Drug in Cambridge, Gary Drug in Beacon Hill, other national high-end outlets, and by telephone at 1-866-OLIVE-MR.

"I am also fortunate to manage all the functional areas of a business," she says. "How many people can say, or would want to say, that they are in operations, human resources, marketing, sales, product development? And, with the product line in particular, it is gratifying to be so involved in all phases, from creation to execution - to develop an idea for a product, have chemists bring that idea to fruition, name the product, package the product, market the product, and then watch it sell. "

Not many. But obviously, there are not many Ida Fabers out there.

Appointments for the November 8 event are highly recommended. Cash and checks (made out directly to the September 11th Fund) will be accepted for payment.