“Sara has a very nice head,” Keyona Shabazz said. “It’s very round, not oddly shaped.”
Junior Sara Pezzella has donated her hair five times. But completely shaving her head for pediatric cancer research was both a new thrill and a sacrifice.
With the support of her friends and the assistance of economics professor Roger Butters, Pezzella raised $550 for St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a foundation working towards end- ing pediatric cancer. Although Pezzella has never personally been affected by pediatric cancer, she was touched to hear of others who had and who supported her decision.
On the day she shaved her head, one girl came up to Pez- zella to thank her.
“She told me about how she personally knew several people who had pediatric cancer and was talking about how much it meant to her,” Pezzella said. “I haven’t been person- ally affected, but here’s someone who has.”
Pezzella first donated her hair to Locks of Love when she was six years old.
“I think my older sister was doing that and I copied her in a lot of things,” Pezzella said. “After that, I always looked at every haircut as an opportunity to do something good. It’s hair, it will grow back.” She claimed she has never been particularly attached to her hair, but shaving her head was a new challenge.
When she began discussing the idea with her friends and family, Pezzella said they were somewhat surprised but con- sidered it in character and showed incredible support.
Shabazz said she responded to the news, “that’s gonna make you look really punk.” Shabazz and other friends also joked about how Pezzella’s head would look.
“They were making jokes about how I would look bald,” Pezella said. “There was lots of joking, but in a very support- ive way. I couldn’t have done it if they weren’t so enthusiastic about it.”
After seeing and rubbing the shaved head, Shabazz ap- proved.
Pezzella’s originally only aimed to reach $300, but when
she told her former professor Butters of her plan, he immedi- ately offered his assistance.
“I became aware that she was trying to promote and to raise money, so I did some promotion for her and donated to it,” Butters said. “She was just a former student doing some- thing fun. If you stumble across something worth support- ing, why not?”
Pezzella knew from her time in his class that Butters was very open to helping students, but was still surprised by his dedication to helping her cause.
“He ended up being a massive supporter,” Pezzella said. “I’d run into him on campus and he’d be talking to someone and he’d stop ask them to donate money.”
When he discovered she didn’t yet have anyone to shave her head, he volunteered to do that as well. Though he’d never shaved a girl’s head before, Butters said it didn’t differ much from any other head he’d shaved.
The day she shaved it all off in the Grewcock Student Union, Pezzella’s friends asked students and professors to offer a last minute change donation as they watched. The change collected that day totaled $100.
Pezzella claimed the weirdest aspect was feeling her hair fall, but not knowing what it looked like.
“There was a decent crowd watching, and all my friends were commenting on my head,” she said. “It was encouraging because I had no idea what I looked like. There were people watching I didn’t even know. It was a little weird, but I was really excited to do it.”
Since then, she’s been adjusting to seeing herself in the mirror, frequent double takes of students, and the feeling of wind against her head.
Anyone interested in donating can visit her St. Baldrick’s participants page, https://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/ mypage/806028/2015.
