Miami University's Central Quad was temporarily transformed into an outdoor hair salon from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday as Pantene's first university campus Beautiful Lengths hair donation event took place. A partnership between Pantene and The American Cancer Society, the event drew 101 donors, surpassing the initial goal of 85.
Representatives from corporate sponsors Pantene and Procter & Gamble were in attendance, all of whom hailed the event as a success.
DJ "Steve the Greek" supplied fresh beats while junior Drew Doggett emceed the event. Laura Klaserner, a representative from The American Cancer Society, also spoke.
According to Pilipovich, Pantene takes the donated ponytails, turns them into wigs, and distributes them to women who have lost their hair by chemotherapy. Since its founding in 2006, The Pantene Beautiful Lengths Program has donated over 400,000 ponytails to make over 26,000 wigs, Pilipovich said.
According to Pilipovich, the idea to bring Beautiful Lengths to campus was proposed last year during a case competition through the Farmer School of Business, and won.
Three interns were appointed in January to plan and carry out the event. Pilipovich of Phi Mu sorority worked on marketing and promotion, sophomore Rachel Seminara of Gamma Phi Beta handled external relations and junior Marley Balog of Delta Zeta was event coordinator.
Funding for the event was provided by Procter & Gamble, while representatives from Pantene in New York guided the team of interns through the planning process until the day of the event, according to Pilipovich.
The trio has been meeting biweekly since the start of the semester, conducting conference calls and tackling various responsibilities, whether designing a t-shirt or recruiting volunteers via social media sites, Pilipovich said.
A kickoff party was held Feb. 27 to get out the word and introduce added incentives to donate. Prizes included a spa day for an entire organization at Luna Blue Spa and a session with a professional photographer.
According to Pilipovich, the event recruited 35 girls to pledge hair donations. That number more than doubled between the kick-off and Sunday through outreach efforts, including a YouTube video, posters, a flash mob, and a brief segment on Fox News, according to Pilipovich.
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"We were very fortunate to have Colton Kidwell of Openview Cinema, produce a promotional video for us," Pilipovich said. "The three minute video has reached over 3,500 views on YouTube."
Rotha Penn, an employee of Procter & Gamble for eight years, was present at the event.
"I actually donated hair at the first event in 2006, so it's great to see how far we've come since then," Penn said. "I always look forward to this event because it is close to my heart."
Marcela Bequillard, a representative at Pantene, was also in attendance.
"This has been a humbling experience. Our goal of 75 donors was surpassed, and that makes us all very excited," Bequillard said. "The crowd here is so enthusiastic, and I've heard so many touching stories. Some are donating just to help, and others have a personal connection to the cause."
First-year Melissa Johnson donated her hair at the event.
"It was a really great experience seeing so many people come together for such a great cause." Johnson said. "It was even better being a part of it because it was the first time a college campus has held and event like this...I would definitely do it again."
Another donor, sophomore Ashley Spellacy said she viewed the event as an opportunity to honor those close to her who have battled cancer.
"I chose to donate my hair... because I have watched people close to me suffer through cancer and have to lose their hair," Spellacy said. "It makes me feel good knowing that I will help another woman feel beautiful and confident with a new wig made from the eight inches of hair I donated today."
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