Youth sacrifices hair to help other children

William Horvath HOWELL — William Horvath, 12, of Howell, recently donated 10 inches of his hair to Locks for Love, a public nonprofit organization that uses donated hair to create hair prosthetics for children who suffer hair loss due to chemotherapy treatments or alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that causes the hair follicles to shut down.

According to his family, two years ago when William, who has Tourette syndrome, was in the fifth grade, he began to grow his hair when his motor tics, which included head jerking and twitching, began to get worse. William found that having longer hair made his motor tics seem less noticeable to his peers.

About four months ago William decided to donate his hair to Locks for Love so that he could make a difference for a child who may be teased because he or she has no hair, but his hair was only 8 inches long, so he decided to wait to have it cut.

William, himself, experienced teasing, due to some of his vocal and motor tics, so he knew firsthand how someone else would feel, according to his family.

He is now a seventh-grader at the Howell Middle School South, and a Star Scout with St. Veronica's Boy Scout Troop 300. He has taken part in various community service projects, but this is his personal "good deed" to a peer in need.

On a trip to the Freehold Raceway Mall on Sept. 27, William, along with his mother, Linda Ann, and three of his brothers, Benjamin, Quentin and Augustus, went to get his twin sisters, Bethany and Emily, 26 months, their first haircuts. It was then that he decided it was time to have his hair measured again.

After cutting the girls' hair, Irene Nigrelli of Kids Cuts measured William's hair to see if he had the required 10 inches to make the donation.

Upon receiving the thumbs up, he then sat in the chair and patiently waited as his long-layered blond hair was put into multiple pony tails, and cut close to his scalp. At first he could not believe how different he looked with his new super-short cut.

William's parents, Linda Ann and Joe, said, "We have always taught our children it is important to give to others, no matter how little you have, because there is always someone who is in more need than us, and we are very proud of William for following this important lesson by giving up something of his own for someone else."

E-mail info@locksforlove.org to find out more about how to make a donation.