Sponsored by
Amazing - a 9 year old girl raised $7,000 for us by getting a haircut! You can help up the total by going to virtualtrials.com/shavetosave
Isabel Simpson, 9, of Green Oaks, gets a head rub from Libertyville's Michael Pakosta. Pakosta's brain cancer diagnosis inspired Simpson to cut her hair for charity Saturday. | Joe Shuman~For Sun-Times Media
Updated: May 6, 2013 1:43PM
Watching her uncle suffer from brain cancer, 9-year-old Isabel Simpson knew she had to do something.
So she decided to get a haircut.
Isabel let her hair grow long to her waist, and Saturday afternoon at JoJo and Me Salon, 348 Milwaukee Ave., she fulfilled her promise to her herself and her uncle, Michael Pakosta, and got a major trim. The event was the culmination of Shave to Save, a fundraiser to raise money for brain cancer research.
Isabel came up with the idea to shave her head to be like her uncle, who was diagnosed in 2012 and lost his hair as a result of chemotherapy. At the same time, she would raise money for the Musella Foundation for Brain Tumor Research and Information.
Her parents, Stan and Mary Anne Simpson had reservations about their youngest child taking on such a project and initially tried to talk her out of it.
“But I started to feel that I was wrong,” Mary Anne Simpson said. “I tried to tell her if you turn down that road, you just can’t frivolously say ‘I changed my mind.’ It’s hard to reason with a 9-year-old.”
But Isabel was determined, and with the help of family and friends, they spread the word about Shave to Save, setting up a website, email blasts and Facebook posts.
“She just stayed on it,” Stan Simpson said. “She’s got a big heart.”
So far, they’ve raised more than $7,000.
Isabel said the May 4 event was exciting.
“It seems like it was all a dream,” she said.
Her hairdresser, Roxanne Kimcaive, owner of JoJo and Me Salon and Boutique, said they cut her hair in stages followed by loud applause when it was all over.
“She was smiling through the whole thing,” she said. “I thought she was going to cry, but she didn’t.”
Isabel hair from the haircut will be donated to Locks of Love, which makes wigs for cancer patients.
Her uncle is very pleased with the impact her niece has made through her efforts.
“It’s great for the group she is fundraising for,” Pakosta said. “My cancer is in sort of a remission stage right now, it might come back but you don’t know. There are other people (with cancer) who are not doing okay, who are struggling, Those are the people who really need this money. This program is going to help them and it’s wonderful.”