MOOSEHEART, IL, July 6 - Even after she donated 12 inches of hair to "Locks of Love", nine-year-old Allison Fetick still had a very full head of hair. And she had a full smile on her face, knowing that her hair was headed to help someone who needed it more than she did.

For the sixth time this year, Mooseheart finds itself with a person on campus whose hair is a foot shorter.

"This year, we've had a good run with Locks of Love," Mooseheart Cosmetology teacher Dodie Whitmer said. "We've had six have their hair cut in a nine-month period, which is really good."

Locks of Love is a non-profit organization which takes hair in foot-long bunches and turns it into hairpieces for boys and girls who have lost their hair due to treatment for medical conditions.

"It feels nice," Fetick said. "It felt weird when they were cutting it."

Fetick will be a fourth-grader at Mooseheart this fall. Her younger sister Samantha Fetick had her hair cut for Locks of Love in May. The plan had been for both Fetick sisters to make their hair donation on the same day, but it proved impossible. So Allison had hers cut July 2.

"We didn't have the correspondence between her Family Home and her grandma," Whitmer said. "So she's been kind of asking these last couple of weeks as we headed to summer if she could get this done. I think the heat kind of got to her, and she wanted to get her hair cut here at school instead of going to a salon."

Allison Fetick said she had been planning her hair donation for one year.  "I'm happy because I helped somebody," she said.

Princess Gbane, who will be a junior this fall at Mooseheart, handled the scissors for Fetick's hair donation, which was made into a pony tail, and will be bagged and sent to Locks of Love, where it will be combined with other donated hair and turned into a hairpiece.

"It meant more for her to have it done by someone here," Whitmer said.

Mooseheart Child City & School is a 1,000-acre community and school for children and teens in need of a secure home, located just south of Batavia , IL , between Illinois Route 31 and Randall Road .
  
Founded in 1913, Mooseheart is supported completely through private donations - the great majority of which come from the 1.1 million men and women of the Moose fraternal organization, in more than 1,800 Lodges and 1,600 Chapters located throughout the U.S. , Canada , Great Britain and Bermuda . Moose International headquarters is located on the Mooseheart campus.
  
Since its founding, Mooseheart has operated a complete, accredited kindergarten-through-high-school academic program, plus art, music, vocational training and interscholastic sports. It is an extremely nurturing and student-tailored program, with an average student-teacher ratio of 12-1.
  
Mooseheart students who complete their studies with a 3.0 GPA or better (4.0=A) are eligible for up to five years of annually renewable scholarship funding, covering tuition, room and board in an amount comparable to that required for an in-state student at an Illinois public university.
  
Mooseheart is currently home to nearly 230 students, ranging in age from preschoolers to high school seniors. Applications for admission to Mooseheart are considered from any family whose children are, for whatever reason, lacking a stable home environment. Mooseheart boasts its own U.S. Post Office and a fully functioning branch of Fifth Third Bank.
  
In addition to Mooseheart, Moose International also supports Moosehaven, a 70-acre retirement community near Jacksonville , FL founded in 1922; and conducts more than $90 million worth of community service programs annually.
  
Founded in 1888, the Moose organization has long offered its members an opportunity to do good for others while celebrating life, with family, social, and sporting activities. For more information on the Moose organization, visit the websites at www.mooseintl.org, www.mooseheart.org ., www.moosehaven.org , or call 630-966-2229.