For the third time in nine years, the Franklin & Marshall College junior got a haircut. And each time, instead of allowing her dark-blond locks to flutter to the floor, she has gathered them together in a 10-inch pony tail and sealed the shorn hair in a plastic bag.

Her latest collection brings her silky sum to 30 inches.

This week, she’ll once again send the hair to the Lake Worth, Fla-based Locks of Love, a nonprofit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children suffering from long-term medical hair loss.

McCallister, 21, has never lost her hair, but she did lose a leg.

When she was 12, a tumor forced the amputation of her left leg. She now wears a prosthesis.

While she was in the hospital, she met many young people who were struggling through chemotherapy-induced baldness.

That inspired her own hair-razing routine.

“It takes about three years to grow it out to get the right length to cut,” says McAllister, who now sports a close-cropped, curly perm.

Spearheaded by a cardiac nurse who suffered from a form of hair loss that also affected her daughter, Locks of Love (LOL) has operated as a nonprofit since 1997.

In its first year, LOL produced 21 hairpieces, and now more than 1,000 are made annually.

LOL has helped people nationwide and in Canada. More than 2,000 hair donations are received through the mail each week, and 80 percent of the donors are children.

McAllister welcomes the chance to make the cut.

“It feels really good knowing I can help,” she says.

***

Most of the sixth grade is pretty much a blur for McAllister.

“It’s pretty fuzzy now,” says the Lancaster County native, who attended East Petersburg Elementary. “I was in and out of the hospital.”

A competitive swimmer, McAllister first recognized something was wrong with her leg during warm-up stretches.

“It just felt like something was behind my knee,” she says.

At first, she underwent physical therapy.

But before the tumor was discovered, it had spread aggressively, and she had to have surgery not only on her leg, but on her lungs.

The support of her parents, Gail and Dan McAllister of East Petersburg, and her five brothers and sisters — as well as her former church, Grace Baptist — helped her get through the surgeries and the rigorous recovery, she says.

“There were a lot of adjustments, but I had so much support,” she says. “My church prayed for me. When I came back to school they had a banner for me.”

She was also welcomed back on the swim team, where she continued to flourish.

“Swimming is actually one of the best sports for amputees,” she says.

She also learned to ski.

When the Hempfield High School graduate applied to F&M, part of the application was an essay. She wrote about the loss of her leg.

“I talked about learning to trust God and knowing he had a plan for me, and finding the courage to do what I needed to do to continue to move forward.”

At F&M, McAllister is majoring in Latin, with a minor in Greek. She is also a Greek tutor and is considering becoming a Latin teacher.

She is a leader on the worship team of the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, and has been a disc jockey on the F&M radio station, FM 89.

McAllister currently attends Lancaster County Bible Church.

She says the warm blanket of help and support she received from family, friends and even the community after she lost her log is unforgettable.

Helping other kids feel better about themselves through Locks of Love, she believes, is one way to pay tribute to that affirmation.

For now, her locks aren’t running out.

“I’ll probably do it again,” she says. “It’s definitely a way to give back.”

Talkback on LancasterOnline

Welcome to the new TalkBack on LancasterOnline. Please use the comment box below to share your opinion on this article. If you would prefer to use the previous TalkBack forums instead, please use this link.

blog comments powered by Disqus