SCHOOLS

Mepham goes bald to fight cancer

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Mepham High School Pirates recently made “cancer walk the plank,” as a popular Twitter hashtag suggests, at the school’s fifth annual Chop Your Locks for Charity event. Hundreds of students, staff members and residents donated their hair or shaved their heads in solidarity with cancer patients, while raising thousands of dollars for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, on March 18.

More than 200 people had their heads shaved in the Mepham gym to help raise $33,000 to support pediatric cancer research. Others donated eight or more inches of their hair to the Pantene Pro-V Beautiful Lengths Campaign, which creates real-hair wigs for cancer patients.

Three faculty members –– Maura Kempton, Marie Netto and Marybeth Vetro –– brought Chop Your Locks for Charity to Mepham in 2008. Christopher Patten and Kerry Dennis, who coordinate senior service-learning projects at the school, work with Mepham’s seniors to plan the fundraiser and its festivities.

“I think the school, in general, is just composed of kids who want to give back, and I think cancer is something that has touched everyone’s life,” Dennis said. “It’s a great opportunity for our students to raise both funds and awareness for a really underfunded disease –– pediatric cancer.”

This year the students honored two young cancer victims whom they had recognized at past Chop Your Locks for Charity events: Gabrielle Brancaccio and Giuliana Geller. Brancaccio, 7, of Rockville Centre, suffered from eye cancer when she was a toddler; “Gigi” Geller, the 2-year-old daughter of Mepham High School teacher Jackie Geller, was treated for undifferentiated small round cell sarcoma.

Patten noted that the girls are now cancer-free and thriving, and that event organizers wanted to celebrate their strength and lives. At the event, they gave each child a personalized teddy bear.

Gigi’s mother introduced a new component to Chop Your Locks for Charity fundraiser: the Whip Out Cancer Challenge. Inspired by the success of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge last summer, participants donated to the Mepham High School St. Baldrick’s fundraising page after videoing or photographing themselves throwing whipped-cream pies into one another’s faces and posting the images on social media.

Jackie Geller, Patten and Dennis were the first of many to take the challenge at Mepham, and Patten said it was a helpful fundraising initiative.

After weeks of preparation, the seniors rolled out the green carpet for the event. Children had their faces painted, residents could purchase raffle tickets for prizes donated by local businesses, and everyone enjoyed performances by the Schade Academy of Irish Dance and bagpipe players from the Nassau County Police Emerald Society.