Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 27, 1993 TAG: 9311290173
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
At a Thanksgiving assembly held at Blacksburg High School Wednesday,the senior and Student Council treasurer owned up to a bet he made with his schoolmates: If the students could collect at least 500 coats to donate to the Montgomery County Christmas Store and the Blacksburg Clothing Bank, he would have his head shaved in front of the entire student body. He sat bravely in front of the 900 students while art teacher Lee Worley took the razor to Carolan's once dark-brown, shoulder-length locks.
``It was kind of an interesting experience,'' Carolan said. ``I didn't quite know what they were doing to my hair... . [Worley] was shaving my head to the music. He had on a surgeon's mask and was dancing around. Everybody would laugh at different parts [of Worley's act].''
Student Council members came up with other incentives for the students to donate unwanted and used coats.
``We wanted to get a lot of participation,''16-year-old Mark Hobeika, one of the coat-drive organizers, said. Each day, they raffled off items like a 6-foot inflatable purple dinosaur, portable stereo headphones and gift certificates to local restaurants and movie rental shops.
``Not very many coats had been coming in,'' Kristen Boling, 16, said. ``[Carolan] is our class treasurer, and a really funny guy, so we thought it would be funny [if he shaved his head].''
Hobeika said that in the final two days of the drive, people donated more than 200 coats ``just to see [Carolan] shave his head.''
``I definitely think it was worth losing the hair for,'' Carolan said.
Possibly an even more impressive aspect of Wednesday's Thanksgiving assembly was the 135 food boxes collected by 43 organizations and faculty departments at the high school.
The food, valued at approximately $4,000, was taken by Montgomery County Sheriff's Department and the Blacksburg and Christiansburg town police departments and distributed to needy families. On top of that, each student organization bought a 3-pound ham from Wades Supermarkets to accompany each box.
``[The Thanksgiving Boxes] are a tradition, so the students are used to it,'' Hobeika said of the event, which is in its seventh year at the school. ``But this year, instead of just carrying the baskets across the stage, we set all of them up on risers and opened the curtain. Everyone was in awe to see the volume of what we had collected.''
Marianna Fillmore, Spanish teacher and Student Council adviser, helped with this year's food drive.
``I was watching the student body,'' Fillmore said. ``It seemed to affect them, give them pause for a moment and make them realize there are so many people out there that aren't as fortunate as they are.``
by CNB