Photos: The Big Buzz in La Grange

For a brief moment, seventh-grader Parker Raycroft’s eyes grew wide as the scissors slipped over her ponytail, and with a quick cut, the long locks fell away. But when the buzzers came out, the dismay was replaced by an ear-to-ear smile, as the crowd cheered and her curls floated to the ground.

Once her hair was buzzed short, she stepped off the trailer parked in front of Tom and Kerry Nutter's house on south Waiola Avenue, and into a group of girls who giggled and rubbed her newly shaved head.

“I was nervous,” she admitted as she stood in the crowd. “But I had Katie there, so that made it easier.”

On Aug. 25, Raycroft and her friends Maggie Nutter and Katie Palermo raised over $10,000 for St. Baldrick’s, a charity that raises money to fund research in the fight against children’s cancer.

On June 23, Nutter and Raycroft’s best friend, Katie Palermo, 12, was diagnosed with leukemia. After a tough round of chemotherapy over the summer, she lost much of her hair—not something a girl wants as she enters her first year at Park Junior High.

In a show of support, and not wanting Katie to be the only girl without hair at the start of the school year, her best friends organized a mass shaving to raise funds and awareness about childhood leukemia.

The event had the air of a birthday party. donated pizzas, brought soda and slushies, La Grange residents brought baked goods of every type, and WLTL Radio supplied the tunes. The money donated for the slices, cakes and slushies will all be handed over to St. Baldrick’s.

“That’s what living here is all about,” said Cassie Niego as she manned the baked goods table. “You can send a few emails, make a few calls and it grows. Everyone helps out and you get great support.”

Over 16 people signed up to get their heads shaved at the event, including a District 102 administrator, a local coach, family friends and a whole lot of seventh-graders. For girls who were not ready to part with their locks, a booth was supplied by in La Grange who were putting orange and black feathers in their hair—a trend that is very popular this year, I was told by several seventh-graders.

But many did get their heads shaved, and all around the party freshly bald domes could be seen getting rubbed by family and friends. Even Glen Hornbeck of —who did much of the day’s shaving—got shaved himself as he handed over his buzzer to Palermo for a smooth new look.

“I think we’re starting a new trend,” Raycroft said as her head was rubbed, and the group of girls she was with readily agreed. “It’s going to be nice for soccer too.”

Raycroft wasn’t the only girl to loose her locks that day. Maggie Nutter, 12, also went under the buzzer. 

“We’ve been best friends for forever,” Nutter said, “since kindergarten.” 

I was Nutter’s idea to get the girls to shave their heads too. Earlier in the year one of her friend’s had done it to support her aunt. The girls got together and decided they wanted to throw the party and shave their heads. They asked Palermo how she felt, and once they got the OK at the end of July, they started planning.

In just three weeks, the families got the community, local businesses and the seventh grade class to come out and show their support. But for everyone I talked to, that was unsurprising.

“It’s been like. If we needed anything, there’s instantly someone who knows how to get it. It’s been truly amazing,” Kerry Nutter said. 

For Palermo, it was all a bit overwhelming. 

“It was pretty cool all these people came out,” she said. “Yeah, I think we’re going to make this a trend.”

Back in school today, the new seventh-grader is looking forward to language arts, writing and seeing her friends again.

“It’s going to be nice to get back,” Palermo said.

For more information about, and to donate to St. Baldrick's, click the link here to go to their website.