VIDEO: Sororities and Scissors Lead Successful Cancer Benefit at UC

Nearly 200 University of Cincinnati students, faculty and employees of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center participated in a simultaneous hair-cutting event Thursday evening in the Great Hall at UC to contribute to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths Campaign, which aims to cut one million inches of hair to create real-hair wigs for women battling cancer.

Campaign spokesman Randall Chinchilla, external relations manager for Procter & Gamble, said the event at UC was the largest yet for this calendar year. UC Panhellenic, the governing body of UC’s Greek sororities, had been working since December to organize the successful campaign, an idea proposed by University Honors Student Jennifer Hacker, the student spokesperson for the event and member of Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority.

“Representatives from every sorority chapter worked to sign people up,” said Vicki Marsala Calonge, UC program coordinator for Fraternity and Sorority Life at UC, who also had her hair cut in memory of an aunt and grandmother, both of whom died of breast cancer.

Before the scissors started working, the donors heard the personal story of 20-year-old Kristen Drew, who is on break from her studies and the UC Dance Team to battle leukemia.

Accompanied by her doctor, Amy Guiot, MD, a pediatric specialist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Drew described how during her third year of conditioning for the dance team, she was having trouble running, which led to the checkup that resulted in her leukemia diagnosis.

The treatment resulted in hair loss, but she says her real-hair wig – a donation from Procter & Gamble and the American Cancer Society – has provided flexibility in how she styles her hair. “Thank you for making a difference for people,” she said to the crowd. “You’re awesome.”

Among the donors was Megan Hathaway, one of the top student participants in UC’s Relay For Life fundraiser last April for the American Cancer Society. The UC/Relay For Life Web site shows the 19-year-old freshman civil engineering major and University Honors Student from White Oak raised $2,255 to go toward cancer research and prevention. At each event to support cancer patients, she wore photos around her neck of her adopted grandmother, Sharon Standriff, who succumbed to cancer in 2006. Her mother, Beth, said that Megan has participated in four Relay For Life events in Sharon Standriff’s honor. Megan was swept with emotion and memories of her adopted grandmother, as Megan’s mother cut her light auburn hair at the Beautiful Lengths event.

Peter Osborne, Southwest Ohio Public Relations Director for the American Cancer Society, praised the UC students and participants for their dedication in the battle against cancer, remarking that in addition to the record hair donors Thursday night in TUC, the total fundraising for UC’s Relay For Life for the American Cancer Society in April had climbed to more than $121, 440.

Among the youngest contributors to the UC Pantene Beautiful Lengths Campaign was five-year-old Grace Goddard, of Morrow, the granddaughter of Donna Fisher, administrative coordinator for the UC Carl H. Lindner Honors-PLUS Program in the College of Business. “It’s going to go to people that don’t have any hair that have cancer,” said Grace. “I really feel happy that I did it.”

A proud Fisher said that Grace was intent on contributing her hair to the campaign and wanted to do so at UC because that was where her grandma worked. Grace’s mother, Tracy, performed the haircut.

Once the simultaneous ponytail cutting event was accomplished, donors were matched with professional stylists in TUC to complete their new, shorter-haired look. The stylists volunteered their talent for the event.

Fraternity and Sorority Life at UC

UC Student Activities and Leadership Development