By Jennifer Hill
Special to the Register
MILFORD — Seven students and two staff members from Amity Middle School in Bethany are sporting a new — and much shorter — do, for a good cause: They had most of their locks cut off Tuesday in an effort to help cancer patients.
The Amity students and staff came to Andre Phillips Salon as part of Pantene Beautiful Lengths, a program designed to have enough people get shorn to obtain 1 million inches of hair, which will be turned into wigs for cancer patients.
Hairdressers at Andre Phillips Salon volunteered to give the haircuts for free. Anna Zanfardino, a hairdresser at Andre Phillips, praised the Amity students for their gesture saying, “These girls are awesome for doing this.”
The students were anxious and eager when they arrived. Many had had friends who participated in the event in previous years.
Anuphya Nagarathnam, 12, gave the most of hair, estimated to be about 16 inches. She had never been to a salon before and at the end of her first official haircut exclaimed, “I love my new hair.”
The students supported each another with hugs and held hands while the initial cutting took place. While seeing her old hair in a plastic bag, Carson Adair, 14, was stunned but said, “I’m happy because I know I did something good.” Fifteen students have already signed up for the event next year.
Amity teacher Barbra Guiliotis, coordinator of the event, also got her hair cut. She said she is very proud of the students and “everyone at some point in their lives has been touched by cancer and it’s a very selfless act for these girls.”
Marika Wissink, Leo Club adviser at Amity Middle School, also decided to cut her hair. All of the students who had their hair cut are members of the Leo Club, a community service organization that is associated with the Lions Club.
Amity paraprofessional Gayle Vescovi, who also attended the event and is a cancer survivor, said. “It is a big decision for these girls to make at such a young age.”
Pantene Beautiful Lengths was founded two years ago and was an event that was intended to last only three months, but its popularity prompted organizers to continue it. The mission of the event is to “make the kindest cut of all” and for people to donate hair to create wigs for cancer patients.
Each person who decides to donate must cut off at least eight inches of hair. Six to eight of those ponytails will be sent to HairUWear to be combined to create one wig. The wigs take three to four months to make and are then distributed to cancer patients at no cost.
Two customers of the salon, Janet Vel-Vecchio and Jane Hofher, are both cancer survivors. They said they were proud of the students for what they decided to do.
“What these girls are doing is a wonderful thing and I admire them for it,” Vel-Vecchio said, “If I had long enough hair, I would do it, too.”