Tanae's kids win ponytail prize
With 27 donated ponytails under their benevolent belts, Tanae Ladner's schoolmates will claim the prize for the First Annual Ponytail Kids Club Drive. That means the students of DeLisle-Pass Christian Elementary School will eat pizza and take scissors to the long hair of at least two adults.
Elementary schools from Waveland to Vancleave competed to win this unusual drive to collect 8-inch or longer ponytails for human-hair wigs for kids undergoing cancer treatment who can't afford wigs. For the drive, students grow their own hair long or talk family into doing it as a school donation.
What makes this story more poignant is that Tanae, who died this month from cancer, was the first recipient of a club wig.
"We are so excited about winning because it shows our students' spirit of compassion," said Meridith Bang, lower elementary principal at DeLisle-Pass Christian Elementary. "It makes us proud to understand that our students and our community are so giving."
The party will be April 7, and Domino's is ponying up free pizza for the students.
Another heartwarming chapter of this story: One of the women whose 11-inch ponytail will be cut by the students, is a cancer survivor.
JoAn Niceley, a Long Beach hair stylist, founded the Pink Heart Funds after Hurricane Katrina to help beleaguered cancer patients with wigs and prosthetics. The Ponytail Club is an offshoot of PHF but has gone beyond the Mississippi Coast as inquiries come in from other states and countries.
"A natural-hair wig for a child costs $450 to $470, but if hair is donated for that wig, the price drops to $230," said Niceley. "If insurance doesn't cover it, we will. Our hope is to put a wig on one child at a time, for every child who has cancer."
Another who will pony up for an April 7 haircut at the school is Valerie Thomas, owner of Long Beach's Claws and Paws: "I don't have a lot of money to donate. I can't donate blood so the only thing I could think of is my hair."
Stay tuned. The Second Annual Ponytail Club Drive begins that day. By popular request, the new drive will be open to older students.
The Ponytail Club
What: Ponytail Club of the Pink Heart Funds was created for monetary and hair donations to provide wigs for children undergoing cancer treatment who can't afford wigs.
About hair donations: The ponytails should be all one length, at least 8 inches long and unbleached. Your hairstylist should pull donated hair into a tight ponytail before cutting and cut above the tie. Place dry hair in a Ziploc bag. Hair cannot be swept up from the floor.
About Pink Heart Funds: The nonprofit PHF was launched in 2005 to raise money to help post-Katrina cancer patients who were having trouble paying for prosthetics and wigs. The founder and president is hairstylist JoAn Niceley of Long Beach.
Details: 452-6223 or 866-757-7465 pink; pinkheartfunds.com; or Pink Heart Funds, P.O. Box 1047, Long Beach, MS 39560
