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73 – Town&Gown February 2010
Every few moments, as Marie Koudela sits across a table and talks with ease about some of the challenges she’s faced in her young life, her left hand moves toward her head and she runs her fingers through her hair, giving a slight tug at the end before resting her arm again. For most, the action would simply be something they do out of habit or maybe when they’re nervous.
Koudela, admittedly, does it subconsciously as a reminder — and, maybe, for some reassurance. It is, in fact, her hair that she feels with her fingers now.
More than five years ago, Koudela, who grew up in State College and is now a junior at Penn State, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of childhood
Above, Marie Koudela (right), shown today with her real hair, was Russell Gutch’s first Wigs For Kids’ client more than five years ago after she underwent chemotherapy for osteosarcoma. Gutch, owner of Changing Times Hair Designs in State College, has been involved with Wigs For Kids for nearly a decade and helped the organization become part of THON.
Below, Koudela (far right), wearing her Wigs For Kids’ wig at the 2005 THON, was a Four Diamonds child and adopted by a sorority.
74 – Town&Gown February 2010 bone cancer, in her left leg. She was 15 at the
time and would have to undergo surgery and a total of 16 chemotherapy treatments. As with many who receive chemo, Koudela lost her hair.
At first, her hair came out gradually — some would fall out as she brushed it or after showers, which she would put off as long as possible because
of the hair loss. Then one day, it happened — most of her hair fell out all at once and into a
toilet in her house. “I was hysterical,” she says. “My mom says she
heard this horrible screaming. It was the worst
moment of my life.
“Being in 10th grade and losing your hair is devastating.”
When she lost her hair, Koudela was the same
age as Jeffrey Paul’s niece when she was diagnosed
with leukemia and began losing her hair from
chemotherapy 30 years ago. Wanting to help his
niece, who begged him to stop her hair from falling
out, Paul, a hair stylist in Ohio, started Wigs For Kids.
The nonprofit organization has grown since then, and each year it helps about 200 children
from across the nation who are 18 or younger and experience hair loss due to burns, chemotherapy and radiation treatments, alopecia, or other medical circumstances. The children receive hairpieces, which would normally cost thousands of dollars, for free.
In 2008, thanks in part to Russell Gutch, owner of Changing Times Hair Designs in State
College, Wigs For Kids began a partnership with THON that continues today. Gutch has been involved with Wigs For Kids for nearly a decade. He is a certified designer for the program and helped Koudela and about a dozen other young people over the years receive Wigs For Kids’ hairpieces that helped take away some of the pain and embarrassment they felt from losing their hair. “He’s a wonderful man,” says Koudela, who
was a Four Diamonds child adopted by a sorority at the 2005 THON. “He had me bring in a lock “Being in 10th grade and losing your hair is devastating.”— Marie Koudela
Kissinger Bigatel & Brower
REALTORS®
75 – Town&Gown February 2010 of my own hair to match the color of it. I was so desperate to have anything. Very few people saw me without hair, so allowing someone to see me like that was a huge step.”
When her wig arrived, Koudela couldn’t have been more surprised. “It was awesome! I was shocked that it worked,” she says. “It really fit. It didn’t feel like it would fall off. It was reassuring because it looked like my hair.”
Koudela was actually Gutch’s first Wigs For Kids’ client. For someone who has spent most of his life as a hairstylist and helping people look their best, Gutch takes on additional roles when he works with children who are, as Koudela was, desperate for help.
“There’s a psychology to this,” Gutch says as he sits in his salon on South Allen Street. “It’s a delicate situation and you have to have a lot of compassion. You want to do your best because you know what they’re facing.”
Gutch has worked with children as young as 8 to as old as teenagers in high school. Some who had cancer but hadn’t started their chemo treatments decided to have Gutch cut their hair and donate it to Wigs For Kids.
“They didn’t want their hair to go to waste,” he says. “The emotion you feel is off the charts.”
Even talking about it now causes Gutch to hold back tears, walk away, and go into another room for a few minutes. “Each one is touching,” he says later.
Laura Ishler of Bellefonte donated her hair right after she started her chemotherapy. She was a senior in high school when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
“Hair was a big deal to me,” says Ishler, who is now 21 and attends Lock Haven University. “It frustrated me when people said, ‘It’s just hair. It will grow back.’ I know they’re trying to help but it really frustrated me. They don’t understand that it might be just hair, but for a girl it’s part of yourself.”
Ishler was especially worried since she would still be facing chemotherapy when it was time for her senior prom. She thought for sure that the wig would look fake and people would stare at her.
For her senior prom, Laura Ishler wore her wig from Wigs For Kids.
Contributed photos (3)
76 – Town&Gown February 2010
When she received it, she was happy with the results. Even though she ended up wearing bandanas most days, she wore her wig to prom.
“It made a huge difference,” she says. “I didn’t have to miss out on prom. It made me feel a lot better. If I had not had it, I don’t think I would have gone to prom. I didn’t want to look back at pictures of me wearing a bandana. … Everyone at prom thought the wig looked real. They couldn’t even tell.”
Wigs For Kids executive director Mark Campo has photos around his desk of some of the kids from across the country who received wigs. He says the wigs look so natural that people are surprised to find out that the children are wearing prostheses.
Campo says it takes between 12 and 20 ponytails and 60 to 80 hours to make one wig. Because people such as Gutch go through the process of working with each child to help make a wig that is especially for them, Campo says the wigs can’t be pulled off by another child, and that kids can even swim in them and participate in physical activities such as gym classes.
“You see some kids who are blown away when they receive them,” Campo says. “The mission of this agency is to help kids look like themselves and live their lives. You see that in action when you see the kids.”
Koudela says that was her goal the entire time of her treatments — to live her life and be normal. Normal in her appearance and normal in how she spent her time. But even with the wig, it took some time for her to feel like herself.
“To me, I was so not normal. I was not Marie,” she says. “The first few months with the wig I was like, ‘Ugh! I don’t want to put this on.’ It was always a constant reminder. But after awhile, it became normal.”
When Tarrah Foltz received her wig two days before her high school graduation, she says, “I felt better right way. You feel like yourself.”
When Foltz was a student at Penns Valley High School, she, like Ishler, had ovarian cancer during her senior year. She was diagnosed in January 2009 and didn’t return to school until her graduation. She had finished her schooling at home with a homebound teacher.
She says her chemotherapy doctor recommended Gutch and the Wigs For Kids program. She wanted to have her wig in time for graduation.
Foltz’s mom, Stacey Fryer, says she cried the whole time watching her daughter receive her diploma. “It was a long time coming to get there,” she says.
Foltz kept a sense of humor throughout her ordeal, even giving a name to the tumor doctors took out of her — Bob. She also donated her hair, 18 inches of it, prior to its coming out from the chemotherapy. “Better to donate it than have it on the bathroom floor,” she says.
She wore her wig all last summer as she helped with the school’s baton-twirling team. Her hair started coming back toward the end of July, only curlier than before. “I don’t like it,” she says with a wry smile.
Since he’s helped Wigs For Kids connect with THON, Gutch is now looking to have the program partner with the Hershey Medical Center and the Four Diamonds Fund. Wigs For Kids already is partners with nearly 10 hospitals in Ohio.
Gutch also is organizing a day in April to raise money for Wigs For Kids. The first New You Benefit for Wigs For Kids is scheduled for April 18. The event, held at State College Curves, features
Tarrah Foltz, shown wearing her Wigs For Kids’ wig, graduated from Penns Valley last year after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in January 2009 and homeschooled for the last five months of her high school education.
“It’s not just about getting a wig and putting it on a child. I’ve put my heart into this. That smile you get [from a child] — that’s it!”
— Russell Gutch
77 – Town&Gown February 2010
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at least six hair stylists from the area, skin-care and makeup consultation, nutrition consultation, mini-massages, a silent auction, and refreshments.
Gutch hopes to one day have a national day of cutting that benefits Wigs For Kids.
“It’s not just about getting a wig and putting it on a child,” he says. “I’ve put my heart into this.
That smile you get [from a child] — that’s it!”
A few months ago, Koudela visited Gutch. She had been cleaning out her bedroom at her parents’ house and she found the wigs and hairpieces she had worn during her chemo treatments.

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She
boxed them up and gave them to Gutch, hoping they could help someone else as much as they
had helped her.

“When my hair started coming back it was hard for me to imagine ever not having hair,” she says. “I think subconsciously I’ve done a good job
forgetting. … I took all my wigs down to Russell, I felt like I was closing a chapter. I didn’t need them anymore, so I was ending that chapter and
moving on. They got a lot of use though — every
waking minute!” T&G Gutch (left) and Wigs For Kids founder Jeffrey Paul
with two Penn State students who donated their hair
to Wigs For Kids.