Students donate hair for cause

The ponytails of students and teachers at Villas Elementary are on their way to changing the lives of cancer patients via the Locks of Love program.

Addy Jackson planned the Valentine's Day event in which students donated their ponytails to the organization that creates wigs for patients losing their hair and undergoing chemotherapy.

"My hair was very long and all the children commented on how much hair I had so I wanted to give it away," said Jackson, the school's media specialist.

"I've known a lot of people here who have relatives who have suffered from cancer and I thought that it was time to give my hair to people who don't have any."

Giving away the hair was easy for Jackson who after informing the school, got so many people interested that they asked local hair stylists to help with the event.

"Mostly we did a simple bob and they trimmed it after cutting the ponytails and we had a lot of help and support from everybody in the community," said Jackson, noting that each piece had to be at least 10 inches long.

"There were a lot of children that had long hair and we ended up with a nice collection of colors, shapes, and lengths."

Villas Elementary collected 31 ponytails and sent a box to Locks of Love with notes from each donor.

"My mother is a breast cancer survivor so anything that is involved with supporting cancer research and helping people that have cancer, I always like to help if I can," said Holly Beasley, a PTA member who helped Jackson organize the event and get the community involved.

"By having this event at the school, we help spread awareness of how easy it is for you to give back and all you are doing is getting your hair cut."

Spreading awareness about what it's like to have cancer and helping children relate and help led to a more successful event than the organizers expected.

"This is the school's first time and we want it to be a tradition and some children and teachers were disappointed that their hair was long enough," said Jackson, who has told everyone to grow their hair and prepare for next years event.

"This is good because you don't just throw away the hair, you can recycle it and give somebody hair that they can use."