Photos and story by Eli Schilowitz
Yeshiva Har Torah students, staff, and mothers participated in a group hair donation this past week.
The donated ponytails will now be delivered to Zichron Menachem in Israel to make wigs for children with cancer. All participants were treated to haircuts donated by the DeFranco Spagnolo Salon in Great Neck and the school’s PTA, gift bags courtesy of Sarit Ebrani and Talia Levy of Manot4Chai, and flowers from Metro Florals.
All told, the PTA collected about two dozen ponytails to donate.
The event, organized by the school’s PTA, was the brainchild of a mother in the school who was inspired by her daughter’s desire to donate her hair. Rabbi Gary Menchel, Yeshiva Har Torah’s Head of School, noted that the school is “so proud of our staff, parents, and especially our students of all ages who have embraced this extraordinary act of kindness and compassion, which reflects the core of our school’s mission.”
Participants expressed a range of motivations for donating. Maya, a fourth grader who was donating through the event for the second time in three years, said that she was inspired by seeing her older sister donate and a desire to “help sick kids look normal until they are strong and healthy enough to grow back their own hair.”
Her classmate, Eden, said she was donating because her red hair is not common and “if a kid with red hair loses their hair, they can have mine until their hair grows back.”
Anthony DeFranco, the owner of the DeFranco Spagnolo Salon, said that the salon was happy to participate and that the salon is “proud of these young ladies for what they are doing.”
