Angel Hair For Kids

No lips aquiver or tears of regret, just confident smiles, as a caring young woman named Angelene allowed her treasured tresses to fall prey to the scissors in a very good cause.

It was high noon at Gordon Graydon Memorial Secondary School, where Angelene Mandrapilias is a grade 11 student in the Peel Board’s regional Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Resource Program, and the scene of the epic tonsorial event was teacher Teresa Cascioli’s cosmetology classroom.

The hair, a glossy 10-inch sweep of it, was to be given to the Angel Hair for Kids campaign for use in the creation of wigs for youngsters who lose their own hair through cancer treatments.

“I’m happy to help,” says Mandrapilias. “I feel so sorry for those kids who have to go through chemotherapy.”

The donation was inspired by one made previously by sister Tessa, a student at UTM. 

And all she had asked was that her trip to the “not-so-grim reapers” be scheduled after her attendance, coiffure intact, at the Friday night school semi-formal.

I watched with interest as senior cosmetology students Julian Davis, Colleen Man, Kristan Parsons and Sara Townsend deftly went about their business—cutting and combing, spraying and shaping, fussing and fluffing.

Cascioli has three classes, forty students in all, specializing in hair, make-up and pedicure. The classroom welcomes 3 to 5 paying customers a day from the staff, student body and community, and graduates of the program go on to successful placements in local spas and salons.

A poignant aspect of that day’s proceedings was the knowledge that, of the stylists-in-training, Davis’s mother is presently fighting cancer and, at the age of two, Man lost her mother to the dread disease.

I sat with my host Janina Empringham, an educational resource facilitator in the ASD program, as her young charge waited patiently for her new Victoria Beckham look to emerge.

The program serves 25 students: a staff of two teachers and five facilitators allows for full integration in a regular classroom environment.  

In addition to supporting in-class participation, Empringham is involved in planning field trips and social opportunities to complement the curriculum and add to the students’ world view.

They are active and curious young people, she says, and it’s important from both perspectives that they get the chance to interact with others.

Speaking of which, one active and curious young person was ready for the unveiling. 

And, ’midst oohs and aahs from around the room, the new Posh Spice—a sensitive and kindhearted new Posh Spice—was ready to meet her public.

The Angel Hair for Kids campaign is the work of Mississauga’s A Child’s Voice Foundation, a non-profit organization pledged to address the physical and emotional needs of sick and disadvantaged children across Canada.