Thomas Ridenour – The donator

Cincinnati, Ohio

I work at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in sports and orthopedic physical therapy. Weekly, we try to have a poll for the kids to complete. One week, as a joke, my supervisor asked, "should Thomas grow a mullet or nah?" To my surprise "yea" got about 75% percent of the votes and I decided to honor the people's request. Months into growing it, I realized my hair grew extremely fast, and as a result, decided to grow it out in order to donate it towards pediatric cancer patients. There is a company based in Michigan called "Children with hair loss" who accept as little as 8 inches and provide wigs for children by application process. They don't charge but rely on both hair and monetary donations in order to continue functioning. As my mom had breast cancer as a child, I know the power that a wig can have for the confidence of the wearer especially going through something like cancer. Last year, I decided to donate my first ever mullet, but am running it back with vengeance. I'm growing my second mullet out now with a little more party in the front in order to donate more hair this time around.