By KAT BERGERON
kbergeron@sunherald.com

WILLIAM COLGIN/SUN HERALD

Mackenzie Lacy bows her head as Lila Necaise cuts her ponytail which will go to make a wig for children with cancer.

Several hundred elementary students counted down as Mackenzie Lacy squinched her eyes and allowed her 8-inch ponytail to be cut off. The 4-year-old's hair brought to four the number of ponytails cut for a good cause.

Monday's hair haul at DeLisle-Pass Christian Elementary School is enough to make one wig, worth about $450, which will be donated to a child undergoing cancer treatment.

With Mackenzie's own dad beginning chemotherapy for colon cancer this week, her reasons for sacrificing hair on Monday were as personal as the three adults who also let their ponytails be cut by students.

DeLisle is the winner of the inaugural Ponytail Kids Club Drive. Monday's prize was donated Dominos pizza for all 650 students and the chance to watch ponytails being cut or donating their own.

Mackenzie's mom, Mandy Lacy, is a DeLisle teacher but Mackenzie attends St. Vincent DePaul Elementary in Long Beach.

The three grown-ups who joined Mackenzie in donating locks, 43½ inches altogether, are Deanna Gray, a golden blonde Gautier teacher who says her own school is going to give DeLisle a run for the ponytails next year; Valerie Thomas, a Long Beach pet groomer who believes free wigs for cancer kids is a good thing; and JoAn Niceley, a Long Beach hairstylist who is the engine behind the drive.

If all this is getting complicated, understand this: Many Coast boys and girls will be growing long hair if the number of hands raised at DeLisle are any indication.

The drive is open to all Coast schools, K through 12, and if students convince family to donate hair in the name of a particular school, all the better. DeLisle took the first prize with 27 ponytails.

For DeLisle, winning the drive was important. A fellow student, Tanae Ladner, died in February after a long battle with cancer. She was the first to receive a free wig from the Ponytail Club, and on Monday, the Ladner family returned the wig.

"She felt beautiful when she wore it," said Julie Ladner, her mother. "Tanae said when she didn't have it on she was ugly. We want another child to feel beautiful."

Tanae's sister, Tareka, cut off JoAn Niceley's 11-inch ponytail. Niceley noticed after Katrina that beleaguered cancer patients couldn't get wigs and prosthetics. She founded the Pink Heart Funds to help them, and the Ponytail Kids Club is an offshoot of that.

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 the Ponytail drive: Coast schools can compete to win the 2009 drive by donating the most number of ponytails, either their own or friends and family, to their school.

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 resealable plastic 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.