Since February, Sandy Tuttle has been pursuing her passion for massage therapy and fulfilling her desire to serve others through her new business, Massage Fund.

A former stay-at-home mother, Tuttle was always interested in health and nutrition. After reading several articles and online information about massage therapy, Tuttle decided to train for a career in massage therapy at the Professional Cosmetology Institute in Ames. 

“Having kids at home kind of limited my options, as far as where to go to school,” Tuttle said. “[Class] met three days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. So, being a mom, I figured I could handle that much. It was right here in town as opposed to driving to Des Moines or Ankeny or elsewhere.”

After graduating from the institute in 2002, Tuttle opened her first business on Chamberlain Street.

“My kids were at that age where I was always having to juggle . . . Driving back and forth was kind of a hassle . . . And there was always some kind of activity like basketball games and track meets, and things that I wanted to go to, so it got to be kind of a hassle,” Tuttle said. “I always like to put my family and my kids first, and eventually, after a couple of years, I quit . . . for a few months and moved in with another massage therapist here in town on 5th Street downtown.”

After Tuttle worked at the 5th Street location for three years, the building was slated for demolition, and Tuttle’s husband was embarking on a new business venture. Tuttle decided to quit massage therapy and help her husband with his business for the ensuing three years.

“[I] helped him with his business for about three years, and that has kind of come full circle and run its course and wrapped up, so I really wanted to get back into doing [massage therapy],” said Tuttle.

When she decided to re-enter the massage business, Tuttle had to complete the necessary courses to reactivate her license. She then opened her current business, which is at 118 Hayward Ave.

At her newest location, Tuttle has finally been able to tackle her goal of incorporating charity into her massage therapy business. Tuttle donates $10 of every session fee to charity, with sessions beginning at $30 for half an hour and $45 for one hour.

“Ever since I opened my first office in 2002, [donating to charity] is what I wanted to do,” she said. “I thought ‘If I ever make enough money to pay all my bills and have a little money for me, I’d love to do the charity thing.'”

Incorporating charity into her business was a way Tuttle could fulfill her desire to help more people.

“I think massage therapists, as a whole, get into the profession because they want to help people, but sometimes you get to feeling that you’re just not helping enough people,” Tuttle said. “My feeling was, ‘I can help more people than just the person on the table.'”

Currently, Tuttle has three different charities that she is supporting. Clients can choose whether their $10 goes to ACCESS (Assault Care Center Extending Shelter and Support), Mid-Iowa Community Action or the Story County Animal Shelter.

Although Tuttle originally intended to work with one charity at a time, she realized that allowing clients the option to choose one of three charities to support might attract a larger number of people. Tuttle found it difficult to narrow it down to three choices, though, and currently has a list of about 50 other charities she’d like to lend support to through a rotating system of donations. Most of these charities are local.

“Right now things are really split pretty equally among the three [charities], so I don’t know which one I’ll be able to give money to first, but once I do, for example . . . reach [a certain dollar amount]. . . I would write them a check and replace them with another,” Tuttle said.

Providing clients with the option to donate to different charities is one of the incentives Tuttle believes is working to attract new people to her business.

“The clients I’ve had so far have been terrific,” she said. “I have a few that are coming weekly now, which is great, and I think a lot of the reason that they keep coming back — hopefully they like the massage they get — but they also like the fact that they’re helping out a charity.”

Tuttle’s new location, along with the “tremendous help” of her landlord, Dean Jensen of Real Estate Service Group Incorporated, has really been helpful in starting her business, she said. 

“It helps to have other businesses around, and people are constantly walking through this building,” Tuttle said.

She hopes to continue her charitable work through her massage therapy, and hopes to see continued growth in her business.

“I have hopes of being so busy that I have to maybe hire somebody else to help and maybe move into a bigger location, and that would just be terrific,” Tuttle said. “When I think about all the money I could be raising and giving away, we could do a lot of good for a lot of people.”