A group of local kids are shaving their heads to help those with cancer.
Students at the École BeauSoleil Francophone school in Okotoks are participating in Kids Cancer Care's Rock Your Locks campaign.
The principal of École BeauSoleil, Martin Camirand, says he started participating in this campaign over a decade ago while he was working at a school in Airdrie.
He started doing it with a couple of teachers who had kids in their lives who were living with cancer at that time.
"The Cancer Foundation started that kind of event to help those kids who have cancer," Camirand explains. "And to pick up some hair to be able to build some wigs to help the kids go through the cancer experience."
He started participating back in 2013, and they did it every year until he left the school five years ago.
After moving down to Okotoks, they couldn't participate due to COVID, but Camirand started back up a few years ago at École BeauSoleil.
"Our goal is that I want my students to be able to help out the community so that they learn that not just raising money, asking their parents, or them giving money, but also making sure that they do something."
He also wants the students to learn more about what's going on with kids who have cancer, and to be more active in raising funds for the cause.
Last year, Camirand brought the idea of this campaign to one of his students, who immediately jumped at the idea.
The École BeauSoleil event will see 35 students either shave or colour their hair as part of this campaign, including one grade seven girl who will be shaving her hair.
In total, about 15 will be shaving their head, while the rest will colour their hair.
Originally, they were planning on raising $2,000 for Kids Cancer Care, but Camirand says their campaign went a bit viral, and they have now raised close to $5,000.
"We're pretty proud to raise two and a half times more than what we were supposed to have."
The head shaving will begin around 10 a.m. tomorrow (Friday), and will go until about 10:45 a.m.
Daphnée Albert-Rousseau, the grade seven student who is getting her head shaved, says she is doing it because one person can change a life.
"Plus, it's little kids and sometimes cancer isn't curable for some people and they're very young, too. So, if they die from cancer, they don't even get to live a long life. I feel like it should be fair for everyone," Albert-Rousseau says.
Tristen Decker is a grade ten student who is also participating in the head shaving.
"I've lost a lot of family to it and I've met a lot of kids growing up with it and it just doesn't seem right or cool that they have to deal with that," Decker says. "So, I think me shaving my head is very little compared to everything they have to go through."
This is the first time that both of these students have participated in this program.
"I feel like I'm going to do it again. Just because it's just hair and it's not like the world is ending and it's making little kids happy and everything. Even making one kid happy can make their whole family happy," Albert-Rousseau said.
To learn more about the Rock Your Locks campaign, click here.