Making the Cut by Clare

Making the Cut by Clare - December 2016 Scholarship Essay

Although cancer has not affected my immediate family, I have watched friends battle cancer. In 2015, my family lost one our good friends to cancer. My friend’s, and so many others, courageous fights are what inspired me to start a Pantene Beautiful Lengths Hair Drive at my school.
The planning of the drive began in October, when I contacted the principal of my school to set up a date for the event. The actual drive was not scheduled until April, but from October to the day of event, I advertised the event around school and throughout my community. I hung posters and flyers, in classrooms and on windows, sat in the quad during lunch, encouraging students to donate their hair, and spread word of the event over different social media platforms, like instagram and twitter. Outside of school, I contacted different hair stylists to volunteer to cut at the event and reached out to two different newspapers, asking them to come and cover the event.
When I first started advertising the event, my goal was to have five students sign up to donate. Even though that may seem like a small number, I knew that five students was better than zero, and that any amount, even small, would help some cancer patient in need. However, after a couple of weeks I still only had two girls signed up to donate and the drive was quickly approaching. Although nerve racking, I remained hopeful and, by the day of the drive, seven girls had signed up to donate their hair, two more than I had even imagined.
For the drive I did most of the pre-planning myself, but on the day of the drive I had some students from the leadership class help me set up and get the girls, and their hair, ready for the cut. Now I’m kind of a control freak, but, in that moment, I had to learn to delegate. I couldn’t do all the work myself, so I asked some of the students to help me set up the room where the event would take place, others, to help the girls who were donating their hair, ponytail their hair at the length they wanted it to be cut, and finally I asked the remaining students to talk with the stylists about what they needed to do for the event.
The ceremony took place during lunch, so that faculty and students could come to watch and support their students and friends. Before lunch started, I was expecting maybe 10 or 15 people to show up for the ceremony, but almost 40 ended up coming out to support. The energy I felt in the room was so powerful. My school community had chosen to come together to support their classmates and a cause that benefits thousands of people in need.
When I decided to inaugurate the Pantene Beautiful Lengths Hair Drive at my school, I did not expect the rewarding feeling I felt after the drive was finished. I knew that I was starting an event that impacted others in a positive way, but this event ended up leaving a bigger impact on myself than I had originally thought. I learned that, although not always easy, doing something that helps people in need, will always end up helping and healing yourself as well.