By Yasmin Popsecu

FN Reporter

Some 15 students, teachers and parents of the Lucayan International School took part in a recent program to give back internationally.

Erin Cordes, a teacher, said she was trying to teacher her students the concept of "paying it forward" - doing good for someone before anyone does something good for you.

This concept suggested a number of charitable things to do locally, but she then thought of something internationally and contacted the nearest chapter of Locks of Love and began the process. She came up with the idea of having participants donate some of their hair to Locks of Love, who then take the hair and donate it to persons who may have loss their hair due to illness.

Hairdressers Rico Smith and Debbie Borsetto donated their time to the project, making themselves available on Monday afternoon to make the big chop.

All participants donated 10 inches of hair, some being able to make two donations.

Cordes said that she was pleased with the turn out and she is hoping that maybe another school will do the same to assist those children who are aided through the Locks of Love Program.

Borsetto said that when she makes a visit to Florida in upcoming weeks she will be making the deposit at the Locks of Love office.

As gathered from their webpage, 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 medical diagnosis.

They meet a unique need for children by using donated hair to create the highest quality hair prosthetics. Most of the children helped by Locks of Love have lost their hair due to a medical condition called alopecia areata, which has no known cause or cure. The prostheses provided helps to restore the children's self-esteem and their confidence, enabling them to face the world and their peers.

The mission of Locks of Love is to return a sense of self confidence and normalcy to children suffering from hair loss by utilizing donated ponytails to provide the highest quality hair prosthetics to financially disadvantaged children. The children receive hair prostheses free of charge or on a sliding scale, based on financial need.

Included in the 15 persons who donated hair during the Lucayan International Program were Elliot Francolla aged seven, who said she likes her hair short and she wanted to help other children who did not have any hair.

Nine-year-old Catherine Chmitz was said to have been waiting for the past three months to donate her hair. Her mother volunteered this information proudly for her daughter.

One parent said she thought this was a very worthy cause, one she was happy to donate to.