BENTONVILLE (KFSM) -- Dozens of Bentonville fourth-graders chopped off their locks this week in honor of a local 3-year-old girl who has alopecia.
A district employees' young daughter was born with alopecia, an auto-immune disease in which people's immune system attacks the individual's hair follicles, frequently on the scalp. The 3-year-old girl didn't have hair until her mom came across the organization Children With Hair Loss, which gives real-hair wigs to children.
When Willowbrook Elementary students heard the little girl's story, they were so moved that they decided to do something about it. The students came up with the idea to hold a cut-a-thon so they could help other children with the disease.
The hair donation drive started on Wednesday (May 10) when more than a dozen children gathered to donate their hair to Children With Hair Loss. Another 20 students donated their hair on Thursday (May 11). By the end of the day on Thursday, 38 children donated their hair.