Brothers prove boys can donate locks of hair, too
Published: July 7, 2006
When Amsterdam Elementary School student Ian McCarthy came home from school last year and told his mother that he wanted to grow his hair 11 inches long to donate to the Locks of Love, his mother, Janet, said she was proud of him.
Now, inspired by his older brother’s desire to help others, Ian’s brother Trevor is growing his hair to donate.
“I wanted to try it (growing his hair),” Ian said. “If I didn’t like it I was going to cut it off right there and then.”
Locks of Love provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under the age of 18 with medical hair loss. [How to Beat Hair Loss: The Complete Guide to Surgical, Medical, and Alternative Treatments for Hair Loss]
Donors, like Ian, provide the hair, volunteers staff the office, and the manufacturer hand-assembles each piece, which requires approximately four months, according to the Locks of Love Web site.
Each wig requires six to 10 pony- tails, according to the Locks of Love Web site.
The hairpieces would cost between $3,500 and $6,000 but Locks of Love is able to donate them to the children.
As girls from Amsterdam Elementary School were preparing to cut off their hair during a June 2 school ceremony to donate to the Locks of Love, the Florida-based charity that collects, assembles and donates wigs for cancer victims undergoing treatment, Ian was also ready to have his 11 inches of hair cut off.
“I liked the fact that boys don’t usually do this and this might inspire other boys to do this,” third-grade teacher Lisa Jacobsen, who organized the project, said.
With 26 students at the school contributing hair for the Locks of Love program, the school collected a total of more than 25 feet of blonde, brown, black and reddish ponytails.
Ian said as he was sitting in his chair ready to have his brown locks cut off everyone was chanting “Ian, Ian.”
“They (classmates) were very supportive of the idea,” Ian said. “Everyone was nice about it.”
While Ian has short hair now and will be entering the fifth-grade, he said he might do it again.
But for now, his younger brother, Trevor, is growing his hair out too to eventually donate to the Locks of Love program.
Trevor who will be entering kindergarten in September only has about two or three inches of hair more to grow. Donors must have a minimum of 10 inches of hair cut off to be able to donate.
“It feels very good to help other people even if you don’t know them,” Ian said.
Ms. McCarthy said Locks of Love doesn’t keep track of how many boys donate hair to the program but Ian was the first boy in Amsterdam Elementary School to donate to the program
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: