Scout finds unique way to help others

Riverdale Girl Scout Marieteresa Porcher Allen entered the summer with a full 18 inches of hair.

If you run into her today, you will encounter a plucky 11-year-old with a five-inch “pixie” cut.

Marieteresa made the sacrifice to set an example for her drive to gather hair for young people who have lost their hair due to burns, chemotherapy treatment or conditions like alopecia areata, telogen effluvium and trichotillomania. 

She also had wanted to send a message to potential donors.

“If I can do it, you can do it,” said Marieteresa, who goes to the David A. Stein Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy (M.S./H.S. 141). “When [the stylist] first cut it, it looked like a bowl cut and I was freaking out, but after he washed it and cut it, I liked it a lot.”

Marieteresa undertook the project to earn her silver award with Riverdale Girl Scout Troop 1477. As of the end of August, she had collected 15 ponytails from around the country, thanks to social media and city businesses, including Ultima Unisex Hairstyles on Mosholu Avenue. Her goal is to gather enough hair to make 100 ponytails by Nov. 1.

The tufts will go to a Michigan-based non-profit called Children With Hair Loss, which has provided free human hair wigs and kits to children and young adults under age 21 since 2000.

CWHL Founder Regina Villemure said that children who experience hair loss are often bullied, ridiculed and mocked for looking different. 

“It’s amazing what the hair does [for a child],” she said. “It brings them back to life in minutes. I don’t know many medicines that do that.”

On a recent morning, Marieteresa stopped by Ultima Unisex Hairstyles and picked up more than 10 inches of hair someone had left in a special box for donations for her project. When she returned home, she opened her mailbox to find one envelope with a donated ponytail from a 7-year-old Pennsylvania girl and another with hair from an 11-year-old Ohioan. 

“I’m super happy that I am going to reach my goal of 100 ponytails,” she said with a wide smile as she clutched bags of hair.

Her mother chimed in, “When she gets hair [donations], it turns into Christmas.”