Helping Sick Kids, 12 Inches of Hair at a Time

What started as a pact among second-graders has now morphed into an all-out community project as the Moorestown Wigs for Kids Challenge nears its 300th ponytail donation.

And Emily Lubin, who has helped shepherd the project for eight-plus years, got a first-hand look at the widening circle of those intent on donating hair for children’s wigs when she walked into a salon this month.

There to donate her third 12-inch ponytail—which the nonprofit Wigs for Kids uses to make hairpieces for children suffering from cancer, alopecia and other diseases that cause hair loss—Emily met 4-year-old Madalyn Poore. Poore, of Cinnaminson, was at the salon to make her first-ever hair donation.

Thanks to these girls, and hundreds of others in the community, the Moorestown Wigs for Kids Challenge is closing in on its 300th ponytail cut in the name of helping sick children.

“I’m so excited that so many people are willing to do this,” Lubin, 15 and a rising Moorestown High School junior, said. “Every person who donates is helping a little girl or boy going through an awful experience feel a bit better.

“We understand that we don’t need this hair as much as they do.”

It's a lesson Madalyn is embracing at young age. Despite always telling her mom she wanted longer hair, it was Madalyn's idea to donate her braids.

"I saw a little girl with no hair on TV and I wanted to give her my hair because I have so much hair and she'll have so much hair if I give her mine," Madalyn said. "When I saw Emily and she was giving her hair too I was proud of her and I was proud of myself."

Lubin and several classmates began the Wigs for Kids Challenge in town during third grade. Lubin heard about the organization in second grade, but needed about a year to grow out her hair to the required 12-inch length.

That first year, they had 13 donations. Then 25, then 100 and so on as momentum built. The goal was always to get more community involvement, and Lubin notices their efforts working.

“There’s really no one kind of person (who donates.) It’s everyone from the little girl, Madalyn, to older people, and both men and women,” Lubin said.

And that growing donor base is a good thing, since it takes about 12 ponytails to make a single wig.

Area salons have thrown their support behind the project as well, often offering free hair cuts to donors. Plus, they keep a box of donations, so the challenge organizers can simply come pick up the donations.

The salons who have partnered with them include on Main Street and Salon Kris Cole in Delran, where Lubin and Madalyn got their hair cut, and the Rizzieri Salon in Marlton.

As the group nears another milestone, Lubin said the plan is to continue to grow the project and aid more children who need hairpieces.

Madalyn stands ready to donate more hair—although she might be a bit overly ambitious about how fast she can grow another 12 inches.

"I want to donate my hair all the time. As soon as it gets long enough, like in a couple weeks, I will go back to Theresa and she will cut my hair again for another little girl," Madalyn said of Theresa McDonough Peterson, owner of Salon Kris Cole and a cancer survivor herself. "I will tell my friends to donate their hair, too.

"I will them them that sometimes little kids get sick and they lose their hair and it makes them feel better if they have hair to put on, so I would tell my friends to give their hair, too."