Locks of Hair: St. Joe Field Hockey Team Donates to the Annual Cause

Information was provided by Maggie Potter, field hockey coach at St. Joe.

St. Joseph’s Academy field hockey coach Maggie Potter is extremely proud of her team. But not for winning a tournament or a game this week. Rather, she is proud because a total of 19 of her girls in her field hockey program decided to cut off at least eight inches of their hair for a very worthwhile cause.

Friday morning at St. Joe was a carnival day for the students. One of the activities run by Campus Ministry is for girls to donate their hair to Locks of Love or Pantene Beautiful.  Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.  Pantene Beautiful Lengths helps women fighting cancer receive free, real-hair wigs.

This past week at practice she began hearing girls talk if they should cut their hair or not.  It is obviously a big deal for teenage girls to cut their hair drastically.  In order to donate their hair, they have to cut and give at least eight inches of hair.

After much discussion and encouragement from teammates and the coach some of the girls agreed to do it. 

When she got to practice after school Friday she saw that a total 19 girls from the entire field hockey program had done this courageous and selfless act to help others.  Ten of those girls were from the varsity field hockey team.

Overall, 144 girls from St. Joe donated their hair to these organizations at this popular annual event that marks the start of a new school year.