Girl to shed her locks for ill children

Girl to shed her locks for ill children

08:23 AM EDT on Thursday, May 24, 2007

By Lisa Vernon-Sparks
Journal Staff Writer http://www.projo.com/photos/20070523...07_9A5NO9R.jpg The Providence Journal / Kris Craig
Laura Cowell observes as Kelly Ritarossi, co-owner of Creative Corner, shears off the shoulder-length hair of Joshua Smith, 21.

WEST GREENWICH
Wearing her green-plaid school uniform, 11-year-old Laura Cowell sat on the back porch of her home with family members on Monday and talked about her coming trip to New York City. She occasionally adjusted the glasses on her pixyish face and flashed a brilliant smile that showed the gleam of braces. Her waist-long golden brown hair, stirred by the occasional breeze, glinted in the sun.
Tomorrow morning, on NBC’s Today show, Laura will give up at least 10 inches of her hair length for donation to Locks of Love. The Lake Worth, Fla., charity provides wigs and hairpieces for financially disadvantaged children who suffer from long-term medical hair loss.
Laura, a fifth-grader at Father John V. Doyle School, in Coventry, will also present hair donated at a cut-a-thon at Creative Corner Hair Salon, in Coventry, on Sunday that she and her mother, Rachel, hosted alongside salon owners Kelly Ritarossi and Lois Benjamin.
Tomorrow will mark the second time that Laura has donated her hair to help ill youngsters; the last time was two years ago.
She is no stranger to hospitals and the sight of seriously ill children; over the past five years she has undergone six operations at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, in Providence, for a disease that caused hearing loss in her right ear. She wears a hearing aid.
Every time Laura had to go to the hospital, the most frightening aspect was getting general anesthesia. She insisted that her father, Matthew, carry her into the operating room each time to hold her, as if he were rocking her to sleep, until the anesthesia took effect.
All of the operations were outpatient, and she got to go home — unlike dozens of other children she saw there.

“I felt bad for them. Because I’ve been in the hospital and I didn’t like it and I bet they don’t like it either,” Laura said.
“It made her realize there are others worse off,” said her mother. “Not that her ordeal wasn’t bad for her, but there were other children that aren’t ever coming home. It was an emotional time for all of us. You hear these stories and it makes you want to help. It makes you appreciate having three healthy children.”
“It’s tough to see that and all the babies in the hospital,” Matthew Cowell said, adding that there were children hooked up monitors with wires and flashing lights and sounds.
“I wanted them to have a wig to wear because they can’t grow their own hair,” Laura said. “I’m excited.”
According to Locks of Love, it takes at least 60 inches of shearings to make one wig. Tomorrow, Laura will be appearing on Today with eight small plastic bags of cuttings donated on Sunday by women, Laura’s classmates — and 21-year-old Joshua Smith.
Smith, like the Cowells, attends Saints John and Paul Church, in Coventry, where Laura recently posted an announcement of the cut-a-thon.
“[Josuha] walked in and said his grandfather had died of cancer. He said he was growing the hair for four years,” Laura said. Her mother said that Smith had already intended to cut his fiery-red hair for Locks of Love.
The invitation to Today came last month when Rachel Cowell surfed the show’s Web site after her sister-in-law suggested she enter a Mother’s Day writing contest. Rachel was not thrilled about doing that, but saw the show had a link to Locks of Love and wrote Today producers about Laura and the family’s story.
Laura’s family is obviously proud, especially her two brothers, Adam, 9, and Matthew, 13.
“It’s not every time you see people trying to give their hair for cancer kids,” young Matthew said.
“So many girls want their hair long and want their ponytails.”
“I felt bad for them. Because I’ve been in the hospital and I didn’t like it
and I bet they don’t like it either.”
Laura Cowell, 11, on young patients lsparks@projo.com