Girl loses locks for ailing aunt, best friend at Commack St. Baldrick's event

Ten-year-old Elysena DeStefano had cut 10 inches cut off her long, dark brown hair Friday in honor of two special people in her life: her aunt Mina and her best friend.

Her aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer when Elysena was only 2 years old. Her friend, whose parents asked that she not be identified, was diagnosed with bone cancer last year at 9 years old. Elysena admitted being scared and nervous about having her hair cut, but the fourth-grader at Burr Intermediate School knew she was doing the right thing for her friend who is now in remission and her aunt who after being in remission has suffered a relapse and is now undergoing radiation.

With her father Michael DeStefano, 49, by her side getting his hair cleanly shaved, Elysena found that losing a few inches of her hair was well worth it.

Her mother, Ivelisse DeStefano, watched proudly as she witnessed her husband and daughter go through with it at the St. Baldrick’s Foundation event held in the Commack High School gymnasium.

“My daughter says, ‘If I make a child smile with my 10 inches of my hair, my job is done,” said Ivelisse, 48, of Commack.

Elysena donated her hair to Locks of Love, an organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children suffering from long-term medical hair loss. Her husband cut his hair for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a charity organization dedicated to finding cures for children with cancer.

According to the St. Baldrick’s Foundation event co-coordinator William Scaduto, the event raised $80,000.

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The event originated in 2010 by Commack High School special education teachers Scaduto and Dan Revera, and math teacher Lee Tunick.

“How do you not get involved in life? How do you not make a difference?” Scaduto said. My 6-year-old-son Jack has done it for four years. He was very young when he first got his head shaved. He was barely walking through the door to get his hair cut.”

With hundreds of students, teachers, faculty and parents in attendance, individuals lined up to have their heads shaved by volunteer barbers from the Eastern Suffolk BOCES Career and Technical Education program.

Commack special education teacher Kathleen Miller had 11 ½ inches of her blonde hair cut off for Locks of Love, and she had a special reason for doing it.

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“My cousin’s daughter has leukemia,” Miller said. “She is 9 years old. I have a 9-year-old daughter, Nikki. It touches my heart to think about it because my daughter is the same age.”