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Crews do cuts for a cause
Many participants seemed to have one thing in common – knowing or loving someone with cancer.
CANFIELD – Karen Crogan and her 9-year-old daughter, Lena, understand hair loss.
The two have friends and family members who’ve battled cancer, so they decided they could do without their own long, dark tresses.
The Crogans of Canfield were among the 49 people who gathered Sunday in the Canfield High School cafeteria to get haircuts for a good cause.
The cut-a-thon was organized by the Canfield PTO and Canfield Rotary. Ten stylists from seven area salons donated their time to chop the locks of children, parents – even grandparents.
“We gave everyone at least a year to grow their hair,” said Betty Leone, a PTO member and its past president. She said she came up with the idea last year when trying to plan a community service project for the organization.
The hair will be donated to two organizations: Wigs for Kids, which accepts only untreated hair; and Locks of Love, which will take both untreated and some chemically-treated hair.
Both organizations use the hair for wigs for children whose own hair fell out because of medical treatments, health conditions or burn accidents.
For the Crogans, it was an easy decision. For one, their neighbor, Suzanne D’Alesio, was diagnosed with breast cancer in May and finished up chemotherapy in September and radiation in December.
D’Alesio, whose 8-year-old daughter, Sophia, donated her time to help at the event, lost her hair but it has grown back. Sophia had her hair cut in February at another event and plans to grow it out so she can donate it again.
Her mom said the cut-a-thon was emotional for her, watching her friends and her daughter pitch in for the cause.
“The Crogans are very caring people and they do a lot for the community,” the older D’Alesio said, tearing up. “I can’t talk about it for too long.”
Karen Crogan said she wanted to cut her hair for a long time but held off after hearing about the charity event from Leone.
“If we can help someone and bless someone, we’re happy to do it,” she said.
Leone’s husband, Jim, works at Panache salon in Boardman and pitched in to cut hair. He, too, has known people who’ve battled cancer, including a fellow stylist who has leukemia.
“We have a lot of people with cancer in our lives, and we wanted to give back,” he said. “It is flat out the right thing to do.”
Tom Weidele of Canfield had 12 inches of hair cut by Elizabeth Amadio from Pierre’s Hair Styling Salon in Boardman.
He said he had a kidney transplant eight years ago and decided then to grow his hair to donate it.
He has a friend whose son had cancer and said he was also moved by seeing children on TV who lost hair because of medical reasons.
“I grew it out just for this,” he said. “Now I can start all over again.”
Lori and Will Bagnola of Canfield brought daughters Francesca, 12, and Camille, 9, along with pictures of shorter hairstyles they liked in an American Girl magazine.
Both girls donated 12 inches of hair after growing it out for a year.
Camille said she’d been wanting her hair cut for a while and said the worst part of having long hair was the time it took to dry it.
When Francesca saw her cut for the first time, she said, “Wow,” and took a bow before the small crowd that gathered to watch her.
She gave her cut the thumbs up, calling it “super duper.”
For more information on the organizations, visit www.locksoflove.org or www.wigsforkids.org.