Greentree Elementary students and staff part ways with ponytails for charity hair donation

Audrey Coburn, 9, could feel a weight had been lifted -- and for good reason. Eight inches of red hair that was swinging from the back of her head moments earlier was now clutched in her right hand. “It feels very different,” the fourth-grader said Friday. “I used to have hair all over the place.” Audrey was one of 15 girls from Greentree Elementary School who volunteered to donate their long locks to a pair of charity organizations that make wigs for children experiencing hair loss for medical reasons. Sitting in a row of folding chairs, the altruistic students were joined by a pair of staff members, including science specialist Alison Garza, who came up with the idea earlier in the school year. Garza, who was planning to donate her own hair, said she asked if any students or staff members wanted to join. To her surprise, more than a dozen stepped up, so she reached out to both Locks of Love and Pantene Beautiful Lengths. “I’m so proud of them -- every one of them,” said Ms. Garza, holding a pair of her own recently detached ponytails. “They wanted to donate as much as they could, and they all did it out of the kindness of their hearts.” Magnifying their bravery, the cuts were made during an afternoon assembly on the Greentree blacktop as classmates wildly cheered them on. Lori Hillman and Danielle Penz, two scissor-wielding stylists from local salons, did the honors. Audrey was one of the first to go. After a few snips, there was no turning back. Though she said it wasn’t an easy decision, she knew it would benefit another little girl or boy who was already going through a difficult time. “I’d feel bad if I had no hair,” she said.