Second-grader, Brooke Eyler is cutting 10 inches off her long, golden locks and is asking classmates to do the same.
Brooke is an 8-year-old who attends Palomar Elementary School in San Marcos and has been inspired by her Uncle Curt Condon, who died of a brain tumor in March 2008, to donate the hair to Locks of Love, according to North County Times.
This Florida-based nonprofit group provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children who have lost hair because of medical reasons just as her Uncle Curt did with chemotherapy treatment and was what Brooke claims his “biggest issue”.
Condon was an Oceanside tennis pro and a two-time Pacific Coast Athletic Association champion who once played at the U.S. Open. Along with being a role model to his students, he was an ordained minister and a father of two.
“He was a very nice guy,” Brooke told the paper about her uncle, who was 54 when he died. “I really loved him and I was really sad when I heard he had a brain tumor.”
Brooke recalls her uncle saying he wanted to make each day count, and a few weeks ago she told her mother, Curt’s sister, that she wanted to do something that would count by donating some of her hair.
“I want to make other people feel a little bit better than they did before, she said.
Brooke’s teacher, Mary Jo Martinez, said she is very proud of her student and claims that Brooke is “an all-around great student in everything. She’s good academically and socially. She’s just a little star.”
Martinez is confident her students will rise to Brooke’s Locks of Love challenge by the end of summer. The second-grade teacher she said she saw the students take out rulers in class to see if they had the 10 inches required by Lock of Love after hearing about Brooke’s plan.
