Thornhill Primary school students and classmates of Hailey Pettit, who is undergoing chemotherapy for Burkitt’s Leukemia at children’s hospital down south, capped off another fundraiser for the little girl May 2.
Grade 3 student Mikayla Beaudette, 8, decided to cut her hair – only her third haircut ever – and donate it to Angel Hair for Kids and a fundraiser was born.
The other students were encouraged to raise money for Hailey and the student who raised the most would get to cut Mikayla’s hair. And if the students raised more than $600, they would get to duct tape teacher Ryan Chapman to the gym wall.
So after about a week, they had raised $760.95 and three students had each raised the most: Spencer Ward, Rory O’Reilly and Mary Bell. Mikayla had her hair sectioned off into three ponytails and each of the three students took turns cutting off one section with some assistance by Kimberly from the Basement Hair Salon. She volunteered to come out to the event.
Then Mikayla attached the first long strip of duct tape to the wall and Chapman – who was standing on a chair – and the other students followed with the teachers finishing up.
Mikayla and a teacher removed the chair and Chapman hung on the wall for a few minutes before the tape gave way and he crashed to the floor.
And Hailey’s class, led by teacher Laura Gray, made her a quilt with each block of the quilt being a picture or artwork drawn by the students and screen printed.
School volunteer Vijaya Hedberg and her grandma sewed the quilt together and made Hailey a dress.
Both will be sent to her. Hailey has been at children’s hospital since January and is expected to remain there until August.