11yo Girl raises more than $1,200 for Ronald McDonald House
Published: November 15, 2005
CORNING - With a few snips of the scissor Monday, a sixth-grader fulfilled a promise to raise at least $1,000 for the Ronald McDonald House of Rochester by having about 20 inches of her hair cut. [McDonald’s : Behind The Arches]
“I’ve absolutely never had short hair,” said Erica Schlott, 11, who attends the Alternative School for Math and Science in Corning. Apart from expecting her head to feel lighter after it was cut, she did not know whether she would like having shorter hair.
As of Monday, Erica had raised $1,227, said her mother, Jessica Schlott of Gang Mills.
Erica said she knows a few parents who brought their children to Ronald McDonald House. “We did some research, and we thought it was a really nice place to give it to because they did a lot for people,” she said.
On hand at the school for the event was Luchiana Buckley of Corning. She stayed at Ronald McDonald House on and off for the past two years for cancer surgery and treatment, she said.
“I’m so happy that she’s doing it,” Buckley said of Erica’s gesture. “It’s really nice because they can really use as much help as they can get.”
Erica also donated her shorn tresses to Locks of Love, a nonprofit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children suffering from long-term medical hair loss. She donated a foot of her hair a year or two ago, she said.
“My hair is so nice and I haven’t colored it yet. I feel bad for the kids with cancer. They don’t have any nice hair like I do, so I figured give them some of my hair,” she said.
Erica’s fundraising effort probably fulfilled about half of the school’s requirement of 40 hours of community service a year, Jessica Schlott said.
The children come up with a lot of creative ways to fulfill the requirement that was started last December and was prorated at 25 hours last year, said Kim Frock, treasurer and chief administrator for the school. This year, they have the full school year to complete the requirement because the program started in September, she said.
In addition to the individual student projects, the school offers a variety of community service opportunities, such as packing food for local human service agencies, she said.
The school recently brought students to Littletree Orchard in Newfield to pick apples for the food bank, Frock said. There were still apples left, so a group of students went on their own after school last week and picked more apples for the food bank, she said.
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