Gibbs School Cuts Hair for a Good Cause

Locks of Love is a non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under the age of 21 suffering from long term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. 

By using donated hair, Locks of Love can provide the highest quality hair prosthetics.  The people at Locks of Love believe these prostheses help restore the children’s self-esteem and their confidence, enabling them to face the world and their peers.  It is this belief that makes this organization such an important part of these children’s lives.

It has been a long standing tradition at Gibbs School, about seven years now, that the Spirit Club, under the guidance of Miss Cheval and Miss Zadigian, arrange the Locks of Love Assembly for the students at Gibbs. 

First, they start by signing up all willing participants who have up to 10 inches of hair to donate.  Then the hunt was on for hairdressers who would come in and cut all the kids and adults hair in front of the school. 

The great thing about doing this as an assembly is the hope that it will encourage other children to want to help others who are in need the following year.  Once all the girls' hair is cut, they get a nice round of applause and participants from previous years stand up and also get recognized.

This year there were 28 participants that got their hair cut on Monday, June 13, twenty-three of them were students, four were parents and one teacher.  The hair needs to be cut initially while in a ponytail during the assembly and then the girls have to go on their own to have their hair styled. 

This year though, a very special Gibbs mom, Angelica Jones, who is a hairdresser offered to have all the Locks of Love donators go on a special field trip to her hair salon, Hair Luxe in Cresskill.  The girls boarded the bus to get their hair washed, cut and blown out which was a really nice surprise. 

Because I was writing this article about Locks of Love, I was allowed to go with the group to Hair Luxe.  The salon was hopping with about 10 stylists washing and cutting all the girls hair and the girls were so excited while they anxiously waited for it to be their turn to get in the chair.  It was such an uplifting experience to hear all the girl’s stories of how they specifically grew their hair to be able to help someone else.  Some of them have done this before and quite a few of them were talking about doing it again next year. 

Congratulations on a job well done, to Miss Cheval, Miss Zadigian and the Spirit Club for organizing an awesome day for these girls, to Mrs. Jones and her Hair Luxe team for making all the girls look so beautiful and to all the volunteers for having the courage to help someone else by giving a piece of themselves.

Here are the 2011 Locks of Love Participants:

• Ryan Grompone
• Analia Puentes
• Sharalyn Brown
• Alyssa Jones
• Cynthia Frank
• Theresa Coleman
• Colleen Moran
• Dora Nano
• Grace Adamo
• Lauren Bruno
• Kaylee Babasade
• Elizabeth Kemp
• Esha Patel
• Kathy Ryan
• Tiffany Bekdas
• Ashley Altamirano
• Kelly Williams
• Caroline Digan
• Allison Supino
• Nicole Reinstein
• Manisha Oza
• Kaitlyn Carberry
• Elizabeth Akbulut
• Mrs. Grompone
• Mrs. Evia Nano
• Mrs. Eileen Duignan
• Mrs. Patty Supino
• Mrs. Fenime Akbulut

Upcoming Gibbs School News:

• Half day for students, June 20 & 21
• 5^th Grade Moving Up Ceremony, June 21 – Last Day of School