Flashing smiles, certificates of appreciation, and their new holiday looks, many of the donors from Pfluger Elementary School’s recent Locks of Love event include (back, left to right) Kayci Stewart, Paula John, Rachel Phife and Cecilia Reyes and (front, left to right) Isis Rivera, Jazlynn Melendez, Laura Hernandez and Denisse Rodriguez. Not pictured, but also donating, were students Andrea Torres, Elena Kern, and Dayna John and parents Jennifer Spivey and Diana Hernandez. (Photo by Kayci Stewart)
by JIM CULLEN
A dozen local schoolgirls, parents, and teachers recently took part in a “Locks of Love” event at Pfluger Elementary School. Falcons 4th-grade teacher Kayci Stewart served as coordinator for the project, having brought the event with her from her previous campus, Tobias Elementary, where it enjoyed several years of donors providing locks. The project has also enjoyed participation at Negley Elementary.
A visit to the event found a pair of young Falcons with beautiful tresses, facing apprehension at the imminent change in their appearance to the upbeat excitement shared with Stewart and assorted onlookers. Nine-year-old 3rd-grader Denisse Rodriguez and 8 (“and a half”)-year-old 3rd-grader Laura Hernandez, among the last of the donating students, each sat patiently in their chair as stylists Nayeli Jimenez and Britney Schildgen of Austin’s Barton Creek Mall’s Visible Changes salon gathered their flowing hair into ponytails, then cut them off.
It’s all part of a much larger picture, Stewart explained. The nation-wide Locks of Love organization’s mission, according to its website, is to “provide hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.” The organization states that it meets “a unique need for children by using donated hair to create the highest quality hair prosthetics.”
Locks of Love further describes its mission as attempting “to return a sense of self, confidence, and normalcy to children suffering from hair loss by utilizing donated ponytails.” Those donated ponytails, evidenced by the local donors, are up to ten inches long.
The morning of the Pfluger Elementary event, Stewart displayed a library table covered with plastic zip-lock bags holding the student and adult donations of a morning of true holiday giving.
The project gathered a dozen donations including the tresses of 1st-grader Isis Rivera, 4th-grader Jazlynn Melendez, 5th-grader Andrea Torres, kindergarten student Elena Kern and 11-year-old Dahlstrom Middle School student Dayna John. Additional donations were given by teachers Stewart, Paula John, Rachel Phife and Cecilia Reyes, as well as parents Jennifer Spivey and Diana Hernandez.
