Young environmentalists foot the bill for town oil spill effort

Students coordinate with local salons; raise money to ship hair to the Gulf, By Selena Ross Hamburg - As salons begin collecting hair to help mop up the Gulf oil spill, a group of local middle school students has decided to pitch in by paying for the hair’s shipping costs. The students, who belong to the Hamburg School Junior High Environmental Club, raised about $200 in a car wash last weekend to pay for postage. Suzie Lawrick, 13, said she had been anxiously following news of the spill and was especially worried about the wildlife threatened by the approaching oil slick. “I was really worried about the animals - I’m a big animal lover,” she said. Suzie was already a member of Hamburg School’s environmental club, and when the club’s advisor, guidance counselor Kerri Yezuita, came up with the idea of shipping hair, she and her classmates liked the idea immediately. “I’m hoping I get my hair cut in time to actually help fill up the hair things they’re using to soak up the oil,” Suzie said. Yezuita first heard about the hair shipments to the Gulf Coast when she went to get her dog groomed, she said. After some research, she and the students learned how to sign up online with the organization Matter of Trust to send hair where it is most needed. They also found out why hair is so useful: highly absorbent, it can be stuffed into recycled nylons and then created into “hair booms” which are tied together and used to encircle and contain the oil spill. The students signed up, got special shipping boxes, and contacted the salons to ask them to collect hair sweepings for a week. Body Boutique was the first stop, and the club found that although the salon was already collecting hair, the owners were not sure where to send it. Not a single salon refused, said Yezuita. Cutz and Beyond, Ravin Beauty, Body and Soul, Cutting Crew Salon, and a barbershop are also participating. With a plan in hand, the club looked for a way to raise money for shipping costs. The Hamburg School PTA offered the club an opportunity to make money by participating in their annual car wash. The Environmental Club joined forces with the Hamburg School Glee Club and, with the help of the PTA volunteers, worked for almost six hours washing almost 50 vehicles. “We wanted to do something that would be helping as we looked into the devastation to the environment,” said Yezuita. “It felt kind of overwhelming, and the only thing that we needed to do at that point not to feel overwhelmed was to take action.” The students expect to mail the boxes by the end of this week. They will go to warehouses along the Gulf Coast. If there is any money left over, Yezuita said, the club plans to send it to an organization helping wildlife recover from the spill. Protecting water systems is a favorite cause of students in the 15-year-old environmental club. Each year they walk down to the Wallkill River to test the water quality.