Community Corner

Crossroads Girls to Cut Hair for Cancer Patients

A group of students at Crossroads South Middle School will be chopping off 8 inches of their hair for wigs to be donated to cancer patients.

With the South Brunswick School District's focus on five core values - Honesty, Respect, Kindness, Service and Responsibility - a group of girls at Crossroads Middle School have taken that message to heart. Eighth-grader Elizabeth Kenny and friends have worked to rally 47 girls to donate 8 inches of their hair to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program, which turns the hair into free, real-hair wigs for women with cancer. 

"Me and my friend Janine were looking into donating our hair and were looking into the Locks of Love program," Elizabeth said. "Then we found Pantene Beautiful Lengths and decided on that, so we wanted to get the whole school involved. After meeting with (Principal Ray Tucholski), he said we could do it at the school. We had an assembly announcing it on March 14, and since then we had 47 girls sign up to do it."

Beautiful Lengths is a partnership between Pantene and the American Cancer Society, which has donated 18, 000 free real-hair wigs to the ACS wig banks to be distributed to cancer patients across the country. Because the wigs are expensive and many of the patients can’t afford them, demand for the wigs is high. 

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"I thought this is a very worthwhile cause for everyone because a lot of people know someone with cancer," Elizabeth said. "Instead of giving money, this is something we could do to help the community. Everyone should give back to the community, so this is one way we thought was best for us to help."

On June 13 at the school, the girls will bring in a volunteer to do the initial cut. Elizabeth chose her Social Studies teacher to chop off her ponytail. After that, the hair will be put in bags and sent to Pantene, while a group of hairdressers have volunteered to style the girls' hair after their donation.

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"This had really had a tremendous impact on me and Janine," Elizabeth said. "We only expected maybe 20 to 25 girls to sign up. We never expected this many girls would get involved. It's so exciting to know so many people want to help out."

Click here for more information on the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program.

 


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