Cutting their hair for a good cause
Lawrence High School students hold Locks of Love event
As Anastasia Tzortzatos, a World Languages teacher at Lawrence High School, waited for Laura Toole, a hairstylist from Cheveux Day Spa and Salon in Woodmere, to set up, she was excited to be cutting her hair for the first time at the district’s seventh annual Locks of Love event on Monday.
“It’s a good cause,” Tzortzatos said. “There are cancer survivors in my family and many of my students have gone through it.”
The Lawrence School District’s annual Locks of Love event began in 2004 in memory of Gail Schlesinger, a Lawrence teacher who died due to cancer. Fliers were sent throughout the district to invite students, parents and staff to donate their hair for the cause at the three-hour event.
Locks of Love is a nonprofit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under 21 in the U.S. and Canada who are suffering hair loss due to any illness.
Monika Patel and Connie Vollmer, both juniors and presidents of the Focus on Helping America club at Lawrence High School, a community service organization, previously donated their hair before the May 9 event. “I donated my hair twice and it was a great experience,” Vollmer said.
Patel said upon donating their hair, participants get a certificate from Locks of Love to honor them for their donation. “It’s nice to be able to give people the chance to get a wig,” she said.
Cheveux hairstylists Linda Parente, Rosanna Gutierrez and Toole came to Lawrence last year to cut people’s hair for the cause. Toole, a Lawrence alumnus, said she loves to help out her alma mater. “It’s a great cause and I’d do anything to help out,” she said.
Lawrence High School Social Studies teacher Margaret Foy had hair down to the middle of her back before sitting in Parente’s chair in the cafeteria. This was Foy’s fifth time donating her hair and she said she donates her locks every year or two.
“When I was five or six years old, my cousin had leukemia and had to wear a wig,” Foy said. “If I can help another little kid I will and as long as my hair keeps growing, I’ll keep donating it.”
