Catherine Chamberlain has a lovely head of long locks that are about to be donated to a higher cause.
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On Friday night, the early childhood educator will dare to bare – all her hair that is – to support Albury-Wodonga’s Relay for Life event.
Ms Chamberlain volunteered to lose her locks for the Goodstart Early Learning Centre relay team that includes the Albury, Thurgoona, Lavington and Wodonga centres.
In addition to the funds raised from those keen to see the finished product, she will donate her al naturale locks to the Australian Alopecia Areata Foundation to be made into a wig for cancer patients.
Ms Chamberlain’s young charges and staff at the Pemberton Street centre sported crazy colour combos and wild-looking hairdos on Thursday ahead of the big shave.
Kate Zuljevic, whose daughter Chelsea attends Goodstart, has volunteered to wield the scissors and clippers. It wasn’t a hard decision for Ms Chamberlain to surrender her luscious locks after losing a grandfather to cancer and seeing so many people in the community affected.
Goodstart relay team organiser Deb Reid said cancer was a “horrid” disease that didn’t discriminate between the young or old.
“A lot of us have families that have been affected; my grand-daughter has a friend with cancer and that really hits home,” she said.
This is the fourth year Goodstart will field a team with 30 participants for 2016.
Ms Reid said the fundraising goal was originally $2000 but that target had been well and truly surpassed with $3000 to date.
Funds have been raised through morning teas, raffles, movies, Friday’s trivia night and generous donations from businesses.
Border Relay for Life chairman Carl Friedlieb said it was grassroots efforts like this that helped make the Albury-Wodonga event the biggest in Australia.
“So far we have 125 teams registered and have raised $196,663,” he said.
“Everyone is looking forward to continued sunshine to make the most of next weekend’s relay at Birallee Park.
“This year we have had immense success from big teams such as Team Jacka, which has raised $50,000, through to the countless smaller teams doing their best to help us fight against cancer.”
