Cam’s Hair 4 Charity: Local boy auctions off locks for good cause

By Adelle Ellis, Times Reporter

At only seven years of age, Camron Hoogenboom made the courageous decision to take on a project that would last three years and require enormous amounts of patience.
Now, the 10-year-old has successfully completed his goal of growing out his hair to donate to cancer along with raising funds to donate to his favourite charity.
“At school, there were these two boys who grew out their hair and they were donating it at school,” said Hoogenboom, a Grade 5 student at Westmount Elementary School, about what initiated his decision to grow his hair out to donate to those affected by cancer.
Hoogenboom cut his hair at the Meet your Neighbour event at Cheadle Hall on May 26 following three years of growing out his locks, dealing with it getting in his face and following through with proper maintenance.
In summer 2015, Hoogenboom talked to his parents about his plan and thus started his journey to grow his hair to a minimum of eight inches for the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program. That program turns donated hair into wigs for people who have lost their hair due to cancer treatments, free of charge.
“We picked on him a little about it. Some people would confuse him with his sister, and I know it was frustrating. But we would remind him it’s a good cause and that (he’s) doing a great thing, who cares what they think,” said Kristy Draney, Hoogenboom’s mother.
“It was also to see if he would stick it out; at the halfway point it was hot and we would ask, ‘are you sure you still want this?’ He (said) ‘I’m good to go, I’ll keep going,’ so it was good and I’m pretty impressed he stuck with it,” she said.
At the halfway point, Camron also decided he wanted to raise money for the Heaven Can Wait Animal Rescue Foundation in High River.
Leading up to the big haircut day, Draney set up a GoFundMe page under the name Cam’s Hair 4 Charity, and put up posters to inform people and spread the word. So far, just over $1,200 has been raised.
During the event at the Cheadle Hall, Draney separated Hoogenboom’s hair into approximately 20 sections which were then auctioned off to attendees to raise even more money.
“I basically made him look like a porcupine … lots of people had already donated, and if they donated they could cut the hair. It was a little way of raising a little extra and we actually did really well with auctioning off some of the strands. They donated whatever they wanted and they chose whatever strand they wished to cut,” said Draney, who added that they made $570 during the hair auction.
So far, Hoogenboom has raised $2,135 to be donated to Heaven Can Wait with more money still coming in, and his hair is packaged and on its way to Pantene Beautiful Lengths to be made into a wig.
Hoogenboom is excited to show off his newly shaved head at school and he already enjoys the low-maintenance style.
“My friends will be excited that my hair is cut and they’ll just start touching my head,” he said. He added he wants to grow out his hair to cut and donate again in the future, but for now he wants to enjoy his short and cool new hairdo.
“This has been huge … family, friends, community and everything has been absolutely amazing,” said Draney. “Without them he wouldn’t have been able to raise what he has and done what he did. I’m absolutely proud of him.”