Kids, adults donate hair

Clippings help Wigs for Kids

MOSES LAKE — For Rikki DeLay, 11, donating hair was a way to support a mother with breast cancer. For Sydnee Jones, 14, it was a desire to help someone else.

A group of children and adults, including a teacher, donated their hair to Wigs for Kids Friday in front of the student body during an assembly at Chief Moses Middle School. Wigs for Kids provides wigs to children who lose hair from cancer treatment, because they are a burn survivor, or for other reasons.

"I'm never nervous until I actually get up there," Jones said.

Shawndra Casper, 12, Brooklyn Jones, 5, eighth grade teacher Leigh Ann James, parent Deanna Escamilla and Moses Lake resident Caroleen Nelson had their hair clipped alongside DeLay and Sydnee Jones.

"My mom's got breast cancer, and I thought it would comfort her," DeLay said.

Carlynn Jones, mother of Brooklyn and Sydnee, said the donation was meaningful for her because she lost her hair twice to chemotherapy.

Stylists from Salon Goddess in Moses Lake snipped the donors' hair while it was braided, then took them off stage for a more even cut.

Escamilla donated 14 inches of braided hair. She said she was ready for a shorter cut to prepare for the start of summer.

Nelson planned to get 12 of her 30 inches of hair cut.

"Anything for kids," she said.

She planned to be back next year to donate again.

The event was the brainstorm project of Leigh Ann James, who teaches eighth grade math at Chief Moses Middle School. Every year, James volunteers as a camp counselor at the Northwest Burn Foundation's Camp Eyabsut in North Bend. It is a summer camp for youth burn victims.

"They go and they spend a whole week and have a ball," she said.

When she noticed her hair was getting long, the idea for the event was born.

As an added bonus, Perfect Look in Moses Lake donated eight ponytails they had at their salon to the event.