VILLAS – In Kaitlyn Dougherty’s family, her claim to fame is her long, luxurious brown hair. Her relatives talk about it all the time. But Kaitlyn will lose her hair to benefit cancer research March 28 as part of St. Baldrick’s Day at the Richard M. Teitelman School in Lower Township, where Kaitlyn, 12, is in seventh grade.
Kaitlyn will be helping two cancer organizations at the same time. First, she will have 17 inches of hair cut off to donate to Locks of Love, a cancer organization that provides wigs to cancer patients who have lost their hair. Second, the rest of her head will be shaved to benefit the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a national volunteer driven charity funding the most promising cures for childhood cancer. People all over the country have their heads shaved for cancer awareness and to raise funds for the organization.
Kaitlyn, along with many other students and staff at the school, are collecting donations for St. Baldricks. So far Kaitlyn has raised $1,925 and her goal is to raise $3,000. The school hopes to raise $40,000 total. This is the fifth year for the event in the Lower Cape May Regional School District. Staff member TJ Belasco started the event in 2010 and teachers Paul Schulte and Anthony D’Aleo brought the event to the Teitelman School in 2012.
D’Aleo said the event honors the granddaughter of another teacher, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in November of 2011.
“She is now cancer free (as of last month) and we honor her with each event since her diagnosis,” D’Aleo said. “That is the important factor of this event to this district.”
Kaitlyn is not new to cutting her hair for a cause. When she was just seven years old, and again at age 10, Kaitlyn had her hair cut for Locks of Love.
“Kaitlyn has always been a very giving child,” said her mother, Georgia Dougherty. “We were watching a TV show when she was five and someone was cutting their hair off for Locks of Love. Kaitlyn sat there with tons of gorgeous hair and would not stop watching the TV. She was in awe of these women cutting off their hair. So she asked me if she could do it and I told her that we needed to grow it out a little bit more and then she could. I thought she would forget about it but on July 3, 2007 we were leaving the beach and she said I think I am ready to cut my hair. We went right to the hairdresser and cut off 12 inches.
Then, in 2011, we were attending an event for the Gatsby Salon in North Jersey and the salon was trying to break the record for the most haircuts in one day and she told the stylist to cut it all off and boom, another 10 inches went to Locks of Love.”
Then Kaitlyn heard about St. Baldricks and began to grow out her hair for this event. Kaitlyn said she wants to shave her head to raise money for kids who have cancer.
“I could not imagine how hard that must be to be a kid and be sick,” Kaitlyn said. “When we are kids we are supposed to have fun and not be sick and lose our hair but it happens and if I can raise money so more kids can live a life without cancer, that is a sacrifice I am willing to make. I also want to bring awareness not only to the cause but I want to show kids that it is OK to stand out and be unique. Kids who lose their hair to cancer don’t have a choice to go bald but I do so I thought it is only hair and your hair doesn’t define you, your actions do. So that is what I want to show kids, that our looks don’t make us who we are but our looks are just one part of us. People care too much what other people think about them that way.”
Kaitlyn is an honor roll student who plays double bass, is on the mock trial team and plays street hockey for Lower Township as well as softball with the Lower Township Little League. In the past she has collected over 200 pounds of food for a local food bank and organized a beach clean-up event with the 4-H.
“She is the kind of girl who if she sees a problem and she can come up with a way to help she is going to help,” Georgia Doughtery said. “Even if it means shaving her head. She is a very special girl, one of those kids that no matter what she does, she excels at it.”
Kaitlyn said she is not scared to shave her head. In fact she is looking forward to rocking some new styles. “I’ll display my head proudly even though everyone keeps telling me that my head will be cold so I better wear hats,” Kaitlyn said. “But I’m thinking it might be fun to get some hot pink wigs and rock some new looks for a while. Yet I want to show off my bald head so people will know what I did for such a great cause. This is important to me because I want to make a difference. I have had family members that have had cancer and I have seen how they have suffered and I could not imagine a kid living through that.”
To donate to Kaityn’s fund for St. Baldricks visit http://goo.gl/XInbks.
To contact Debra Rech, email drech@cmcherald.com.
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
