Teacher Kim Felicetta (l-r) watches as Vice Principal Myrna Velez has her head buzzed by cosmetology student Samantha Steneck, who won the right to cut Velez’s hair off by raising the most money for cancer charity, the Family Reach Foundation. The three are part of the Cosmetology Program at the Monmouth County Vocational School in Hazlet, which hosted Operation: Bald Eagle on Feb. 13. ERIC SUCAR staff When a woman chooses to shave her head, people take notice. Myrna Velez, assistant principal with the Monmouth County Vocational School District, was aware of that.
Velez, a supporter of the nonprofit Family Reach Foundation, volunteered her straight, well-groomed head of brown hair for the greater good last week as part of Operation: Bald Eagle, a fundraising event for cancer patients held at the district’s Cosmetology Program facility in Hazlet on Feb. 13.
This move was partly to raise awareness for the event and partly to get her students passionately involved in a charitable enterprise.
“I said, what do we want to do to help raise money and get my kids involved? And I came up with the idea of a buzz-off event. I said, whoever raises the most money on their own, whoever contributes the most, gets to have the honor of buzzing my hair,” Velez said while counting down the minutes until she had to live up to her side of the deal.
“Can I tell you, the $20s started flying out of the pockets right then and there.”
All of the nearly 40 cosmetology students, who travel from home high schools throughout the county for industry-oriented training, participated in the fundraising effort by hitting up family members and fellow students for donations and selling gift-basket raffle tickets to friends and coworkers.
Raritan High School junior Samantha Steneck was the lucky winner, raising $600 in addition to soliciting a gift-basket donation from her employer, the Middletown Shoprite. Her prize? A pair of clippers and a promise from Velez that she wouldn’t receive a bad grade for buzzing her assistant principal’s head.
“They told me, I can’t mess it up,” said Steneck just prior to the main event.
When asked if she’d ever shaved anyone’s head before, she said no, adding, “I practice on mannequins though.”
Steneck said the grand prize was not the reason she had worked so hard to raise money.
“It’s just a good cause,” she said.
In all, Velez said her students raised close to $1,200 prior to the event, every dollar of which was matched by a personal friend of hers. Another $200 was donated from 2 to 5 p.m. last week as supporters stopped by to enjoy free baked goods, drop a donation in the bucket or simply watch the show.
Some of the gutsier attendees volunteered to sit in a chair and have their heads shaved by the professionals-in-training.
Brookdale student Ryan Hanrahan, with a freshly exposed scalp, said he came to make a donation and support his girlfriend, cosmetology student Aileen Fazio.
Fazio, a Raritan senior, lost a grandfather to cancer and has a grandmother who has been diagnosed with lymphoma. She said she briefly considered shaving her own head, but decided against it.
“If my grandma didn’t have hair, I would definitely do it to make her feel better. But it still feels good to be a part of this. I was able to raise $60. So that’s something.”
Jim Colangelo, founder of the Parsippany based Family Reach Foundation, said he began the charity out of his own personal connection with cancer. After losing his 11- year-old son in 1981, he and he wife began fundraising and donating to local organizations and hospitals on a grass-roots basis.
After Colangelo met up with fellow insurance professional Rick Morello, whose own daughter was diagnosed with cancer at 27, the two were able to bring the fledgling organization to unforeseen heights.
Today, Family Reach hosts a number of big-time fundraisers, including charity golf outings, dances, 5K runs and countless other events throughout the country.
Through its diverse array of celebrity supporters, including actor Matt Damon and celebrity chef Mario Batali, professional sports team sponsors including the New York Jets, corporate donors, and the 30 partner hospitals that work with the charity to identify patients and families in need, Colangelo estimates that Family Reach has helped more than 10,000 families in the past 20 years.
The charity, he said, helps pay for medical costs, insurance premiums, rent, utility bills and other expenditures on behalf of cancer patients and their families, often directly to the source and in as little as a few days.
“Some people might say, how much is $1,000 really going to do for someone? But for the families that are going through this — and we’ve helped over 500 this year — it can make a really big difference.”
Though Operation: Bald Eagle was relatively small compared to some of the bigger Family Reach events held every year, Colangelo said seeing young students step up and get involved was more important.
“It doesn’t matter how much they raise, because they are learning how to help other people. They’re learning what they can do to make a difference out there in the world.” Velez agreed. In addition to serving as the ultimate auction prize, her pledge to shave her head was also an act of solidarity.
A family member and former colleague — a widowed mother with a 6-year-old daughter — is currently fighting breast cancer. The woman, who Velez said lost all of her “beautiful jet-black hair” during chemotherapy, was scheduled to have her final treatment and a mammogram on the same day, at the same time, as Velez sat down in a barber chair.
In the end, after her students trimmed her neckline and cleaned up around her ears, after they swept up the large pile of brown locks, and after taking dozens of pictures and awarding her with a round of applause, Velez said she was happy. Not only with her new hairdo, which she said saves her nearly an hour or prep time each morning, but with the unconventional lesson she had taught her students as well.
“The most important thing I think is, what are you willing to do to help another person? How far are you willing to go to reach out and let somebody know that they’re not alone?”