What are the requirements for donating hair? Will they take grey hair? What if I dye it?

One of our patrons regularly donates her hair and was wondering if she could continue to do so if she dyed her hair, or as her hair started to go gray. Looking around online, we found several organizations that accept donated hair, and all of them have their own particular requirements. One thing that they all have in common is that hair must be clean, dry, in good condition, and gathered into a ponytail or a braid. They all have minimum lengths for donated hair, from eight to twelve inches depending on the organization, but most of their websites specify that curly hair can be stretched straight while measuring it. It can take up to twelve ponytails to make a hairpiece.

Locks of Love is one of the most well known. They provide hairpieces to children who are suffering from long-term hair loss because of a medical condition. Most of the children they serve have alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that causes the hair follicles to stop working. (It was founded, in fact, by someone with alopecia.) Ponytails or braids donated to Locks of Love must be at least ten inches long. They don’t accept bleached hair or dreadlocks, but they will accept permed or otherwise colored hair, along with grey hair. While they don’t use it in their wigs for children, they’ll sell it, along with hair that’s too short or otherwise doesn’t meet their criteria, to help defray costs.  

CWHL (Children With Hair Loss) was founded in September 2000 with the goal of helping kids with cancer, but they’ve since expanded their reach to include children with alopecia, burns, and other medical issues. They pride themselves on providing their hairpieces at no cost. Donated hair must be eight inches or longer. They accept grey hair, and, while they prefer hair not to be chemically treated, they will accept that as well.

Wigs for Kids is another organization providing wigs free of cost to kids and their families. They were founded around thirty years ago by Jeffrey Paul, a hairdresser who wanted to help his fifteen-year-old niece after she was diagnosed with leukemia. Hair donated to Wigs for Kids must be at least twelve inches long and cannot be colored, permed, or otherwise chemically treated.

Wigs 4 Kids, a completely different organization, has the same mission as Wigs for Kids and CWHL but is focused solely on helping kids in Michigan. Anyone can donate hair, but it must be at least ten inches long, not colored or chemically treated, and not “more than 10% grey.”

While the above organizations focus on helping children, Pantene Beautiful Lengths provide free wigs to women who have lost their hair through cancer treatments. They accept hair that is at least eight inches long, and, as with Wigs for Kids and Wigs 4 Kids, it cannot be colored or chemically treated.

We found our information on the charities’ websites. For more information on how to help out charitable organizations, Karl T. Muth’s Charity and Philanthropy for Dummies is available for borrowing through CLEVNET.

Can I Have More Information about the Orphan Train Program?

Our library book club recently read Christina Baker Kline’s Orphan Train. The title refers to a program developed by the Children’s Aid Society (with a similar program developed later by the New York Foundling Hospital) that transported orphaned and homeless children from the big cities in the East to new lives in the West. Some found loving families, but others weren’t so lucky, meeting with abuse often in the form of unscrupulous adults who saw fit to use them as unpaid labor. The orphan trains ran from 1853 until 1929.

While the back of the book provides a lot of information about the orphan train riders, one of the members of the book club was curious about the aid workers’ side of the story. Were there any primary sources available from them?

The Children’s Aid Society still exists today. They understand that people are curious about their history, and they give a phone number (212-949-4847) and an email address (archives@childrensaidsociety.org) for people to contact to learn more about the orphan train program. They also provide access to the Victor Remer Historical Archives of the Children’s Aid Society. A guide to the archives can be found online here. While you’ll need to be at the library of the New-York Historical Society to view most of the materials yourself (which include journals and memoirs of Children’s Aid Society agents and correspondence with children who were placed out), some of the material has been digitized and can be viewed here. 

We also found a book about the founder of the Children’s Aid Society, Stephen O’Connor’s Orphan Trains: The Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Failed, which is available through CLEVNET.

If you’re ever in Concordia, Kansas, and want to know more about the orphan train movement, you can visit the National Orphan Train Complex. (For more information, their website is located at http://orphantraindepot.org/.)

How Can My Dog Be Trained To Be A Therapy Dog?

“I’m interested in having my dog be able to visit hospitals, nursing homes, and other places. Where can I find information on how to do this?” Newton Falls Public Library staff members have also wondered if some of their pets would be useful as therapy animals, and looked forward to discovering the answer.

Where the Trail Grows Faint: a year in the life of a therapy dog team by Lynne Hugo is about the experience of having a dog used for therapeutic use, but doesn’t have a list of resources. We continued the search online as our patron needed to know where or how to train his dog.

We found two groups which certify therapy dogs. The Delta Society [http://www.deltasociety.org/] has a local chapter, K9s for Compassion [http://k9sforcompassion.tripod.com/] in Hubbard, Ohio. “Delta Society registers dogs and cats as well as other domesticated animals such as rabbits, goats, horses, miniature pigs, birds etc.” Therapy Dogs International [http://www.tdi-dog.org/]. Therapy Dogs International has links to an informational packet and testing dates in our area. The brochure lists eleven steps or tests which the dog must complete:

1. Accepting a friendly stranger

2. Sitting politely for petting

3. Appearance and grooming

4. Out for a walk (walking on a loose leash)

5. Walking through a crowd

6. Sit and down on command/staying in place

7. Coming when called

8. Reaction to another dog

9. Reactions to distractions

10. Supervised separation

11. Say hello

Both of these groups have local contacts listed on their websites.


The certification requires that the dog be very well trained and the library has an extensive collection of dog training books and videos, including Drool School: family dog training [a DVD], The Loved Dog: the playful, nonaggressive way to teach your dog good behavior by Tamar Geller [both the book and DVD] and Cesar's Way: the natural, everyday guide to understanding and correcting common dog problems by Cesar Millan. Our patron was also given the contact information for All-Breed Training in North Jackson, Ohio, a local training facility to see if they had information about therapy training.

What can I do to help?

“What can I do to help the library?” During February's Love your Library Month this was a question the Newton Falls Public Library loves to hear.

• Volunteer. You can join our elite corps of dedicated volunteers! By sharing your time and talent with us, you can make a big difference in the quality of library service in your community. Library volunteers work side by side with staff in many activities. There is an ongoing need at our library for help sorting and shelving library materials, assisting with special projects, demonstrating new technologies to the public, answering phones, shelf-reading (Adopt-a-Shelf), and more. You will be able to acquire new skills and gain recognized work experience, expand your social horizons, serve in your own neighborhood, keep up with the latest books, help, and be appreciated for it. What is expected of you? Respect the public and be responsive to its needs, be willing to learn, and to meet the schedule and length of service that you have negotiated with the library.


Our volunteers range in age from 15 to ? Some do short-term projects, and some stay for many years! We welcome your gift of time, whatever it may be.


• Donate monetary gifts for the purchase materials. These items may be placed in memory of a loved one, or in honor of a person or special occasion.


• Donate gently used books and media. Some items will be placed in our collection for others to enjoy; the rest will be passed along to our Friends for their book sales.


• Join our Friends of the Library. Membership does not require attendance at meetings, only a willingness to assist once or twice a year during a special event or a book sale, or bake cookies for a program. Over the years our Friends have financially supported all of the free programs offered by the library, as well as donated additional money for purchase of materials and our building fund. Application for membership is available at the library.

A Very Special Library Lover

The Newton Falls Public Library received a special donation during Library Lovers’ Month from a very small library lover. Six year old Melody Jacques visited the library to select books and to make a gift to the library. In July of 2009, after a discussion with her parents, Heidi and Les Jacques, about how the library depends upon donations to have books and stay open, Melody informed them she wanted to give money to the library and have her name put into the big book in the foyer. Her mother helped to make a box, covered with stickers and surrounded by books, to hold her fund. Good deeds and hard work were rewarded with green stones in a jar, which earned her money each week. When Melody received money as gifts from family members, the money went into her fund. Upon reaching $50, her pediatrician Dr. Giorgio Vescera matched her fund. On February 13 Melody presented her gift to the library staff for the purchase of more of her favorite books.

Melody and her favorite books with Youth Services Librarian, Chrissy Braun.