Giving More Than Thanks

I wasn't going to post again until after Thanksgiving, but a woman always has the prerogative to change her mind, so I did. ;)

Two years ago, my daughter cut eleven inches off her hair and donated it in honor of a family member who was dying of cancer.

This past summer, it had grown to below her shoulders again. I asked her if she'd like to get it cut, citing a shorter style would be cooler in our sweltering Houston climate. She declined, saying she wanted to grow it out and donate it again this November.

Like mothers do, I nodded and agreed, figuring she'd forget or change her mind by fall.
I was wrong.

Last week, we went down to the local salon at daughter's insistence and had her well-past-shoulder-length hair cut to just below her chin. She mailed it off to Locks of Love, an organization that makes hairpieces for children with long-term hair loss from things like alopecia, brain stem radiation, and burns.

Donating is easy ($$ or hair). You just go to the website, print a donation form, fill it out, and mail it in with the hair. (We put the hair in a large zipper baggie, then place that with the form inside a mailer.) The hair must be rubber-banded into ponytails and cannot be bleached or color treated. If the hair is at least ten inches long, they can use it. Pieces less than ten inches and donations of gray hair are sold to offset costs.

My fifteen-year-old can be, well, fifteen. But sometimes she shows me a thing or two about character, selflessness, and generosity.

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I hope this finds you all having a great

holiday week with your families. 

Happy Thanksgiving. :)