When Lawrence Gill shaved his dreadlocks Monday, he changed the life of a person he will never know.

Gill donated his hair to “Wigs for Kids,” a national organization which makes wigs for children who have lost their hair from chemotherapy, radiation treatments, burns or other medicals treatments.

In order for Gill to receive his Army ROTC fatigues, he had to remove his hair to fit the grooming standards of the Army.

I was present for his hair cut and the congratulations which followed, but I am interested in what happens next. What happened when Gill packaged the hair and brought it to the post office to mail to the company?

My youngest sister donated her hair several years ago to “Locks of Love,” an organization which provides children and young adults 21 and younger suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis with hairpieces.

The most memorable step in my sister’s donation process was her trip to the post office. She handed the woman her padded envelope and said she wanted to mail it. Conversation between the two remained standard until the woman asked my sister if anything was fragile or perishable.

Unsure of the classification of hair, my sister replied she didn’t know. To try to help my sister, the woman asked what was inside the package. “My hair,” my sister said.

It was then that the woman linked the name on the package to what my sister was doing, and the worker began to cry.

The woman at the post office knew neither my sister nor the recipient of the hair, but she was happy to be a participant in the good deed.

Honestly, my sister needed a hair cut badly. Her hair was longer that her pre-teen self could manage. She didn’t need the hair, but someone else did.

In our lives, there are always moments when we could toss away something because we do not need it. But if you give it to someone else, it has the power to change a life, such as the children who proudly display their hair, donated from people such as Gill and my sister.

And for those of you not ready to donate your hair, there is one other way that you can help others—donate your aluminum cans to our collection drive benefitting the Claude C. Brown YMCA. We will continue to collect cans, so please make it a habit to bring the cans to us. This way, we can all make a difference.

Laura Fenton is the education and general assignment reporter for the Times-Journal. She can be reached at 410-1744 or laura.fenton@selmatimesjournal.com.