Two Seneca High School students organized a hair donation drive at their high school to support those affected by cancer.
It all started when Kayla Dauria felt the urge to donate her hair. She knew her friend Katelyn Dever had donated hers in the past so she asked her about it. Somewhere along the line, the idea turned into an event at Seneca High School called the Pantene Beautiful Lengths Hair Drive, featuring 24 girls and one boy who offered to chop off eight inches of hair to help those with cancer.
The hair, which was collected in bags and placed in a box, will be shipped to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths Center in Grand Rapids, Minn., where it will be used to create wigs for cancer patients going through chemotherapy.
The reason for the drive? It wasn’t a class project or anything of the sort. Dauria and Dever simply wanted to give back.
“We both just wanted to do it and get the Seneca family involved,” Dauria said.
“We started in Starbucks and we just sat there for three hours planning everything that we wanted to do and it just grew,” Dever added. “We just really wanted to do it.”
Dauria and Dever, both members of the National Honor Society, said they got a lot of help from their NHS advisor, Maureen McMichael, and Kathy Donaghue, the school’s media specialist and assistant athletic director.
“They advertised for this and set up their stools and the backgrounds and they did everything they could do to make sure this was a successful event,” Donoghue said. “So they should really be credited so much because, really, they did it all.”
For some of the girls, such as Seneca student Madison Groody, the drive was a convenience.
“I had it really long for a while and I was going to cut it anyway and figured that donating it was a good idea,” she said.
For others, such as student Kasey Mitchell, it was to help those in need.
“I’m all about doing things for good causes. Even if I didn’t like it, other people deserve to have their hair,” she said.
And for a more select group, the drive was personal.
“My mom has cancer so I did it for her,” student Lindsay O’Leary said. “She just started chemo and she had to get her hair shaved off. So I did it for her.”
The lone boy to get his hair cut at the event was Tanner George. Because George didn’t have long enough hair to meet the eight-inch minimum, he had to walk around school with a jar and collect money. Because he was able to fill his jar with money, he was able to participate in the event by donating the money he collected, and by getting the hair he had buzzed off.
How much money was in the jar?
“I have no idea,” he said. “There’s got to be a lot.”
Even though George wasn’t able to donate his hair, he’s happy he could be involved.
“Hair always grows back,” he said. “I just thought it was a great cause, so why not?”
A few stylists from Salon 541 were on hand to do the honor of cutting of the hair.
“It’s a great cause,” said Kristen Worrell, the owner of Salon 541 and one of the stylists. “We do stuff like this at our salon so it’s just really nice to do for them. It’s a great cause and they’re great girls and [Tanner] did a great job shaving his head, too.”
