Londonderry High School will hold its 10th annual Day of Giving on Friday, Jan. 8, where almost 200 students plan to donate their locks to be made into real-hair wigs for women battling cancer.
The campaign has grown into a nationally recognized event, capturing a Guinness World Record for simultaneous ponytail cuts and earning the high school recognition in Seventeen Magazine as “a school you might want to transfer to because of this tradition.”
Last year’s Day of Giving shattered the school’s previous record of most hair donations collected, with 324 students and members of the community gifting their locks to Beautiful Lengths.
This year’s group of donors, or “angels” as they are affectionately referred to by members of the Lancer community, was 181 angels strong and growing as of Tuesday, according to English teacher Steven Juster, who serves as an advisor to the student groups that work to bring the event to fruition each year.
Senior Corinne Dubois, who was the first to sign up for this year’s Day of Giving, said she was excited about her new look.
Dubois said she immediately regretted choosing not to donate her hair last year and even came close to donating her hair over the summer.
Instead, she held back and opted to wait for this year’s anniversary event, hoping to donate a foot of her hair.
“I donated my hair as a sophomore and I hated it because I had gotten so used to my hair being long. But now, I can’t wait for that feeling on the floor,” Dubois said.
And Brooke Laflamme, a sophomore whose aunt has overcome breast cancer twice, plans to participate in the Beautiful Lengths campaign for her second consecutive year.
Laflamme said she hopes to donate all four years she is a student at Londonderry High School.
To promote the event at the high school, Juster’s students made posters to hang in the school lobby featuring students who have donated their hair in previous years.
“They are the stars,” he said.
The Day of Giving event takes place at 8:30 a.m. Jan. 8 in the LHS gym.
For more information about Pantene Beautiful Lengths, visit the campaign’s official blog at www.beautifullengths.wordpress.com.