A birthday wish for others

Olivia Chuck didn't have a birthday wish list last week. Instead she celebrated turning 8 by giving a precious gift to a perfect stranger.

Olivia had her ponytail cut off before an admiring audience of her fellow Pamapuria School pupils, to be delivered to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths programme for the making of a wig.

Olivia was inspired by her friend Tahlia Foster, who donated her hair to the same cause earlier this year, although there might have been an added incentive. Her mother, Kaitaia College music teacher Lisa Chuck, said her daughter had been keen to have her hair cut short since finishing ballet.

"I think she was just over having her hair hoisted up into a bun every week," she said, while Olivia, who said she wanted to give a gift to somebody on her birthday, confessed that she was sick of Mum brushing her hair, and that it would make summer easier.

The cutting, sponsored by her fellow school mates and the wider community, raised $600 in just over two weeks, for CanTeen.

This money will be donated to CanTeen, an organisation which helps young people suffering from cancer.

Meanwhile, Lisa's admiration of Olivia was such that she felt compelled to follow her example, surprising her daughter by plonking herself down in the hairdresser's seat to have her own long locks removed.

"I didn't think Mum would do it," Olivia said, adding that copying her was "pretty cool".

Pamapuria School teacher Cheryl Bamber was moved too, and donated the locks she had saved from a recent salon visit to the cause.

And the team from Hair in Kaitaia got into the spirit, closing the salon, giving their time and skills and adding $100 to Olivia's fundraising kitty.

Go to www.beautifullengths.co.nz for more about the cause and how hair can be donated.