Texas teacher cuts hair after 3 years, donates in school’s acts of kindness project

Kindness and success have something in common. They both often involve sacrificing something.

So Brent Caldwell, Student Success Academy teacher at Lake Pointe Elementary in the Eagle Mountain Saginaw School District, surprised students by getting a haircut and donating his locks during a live broadcast of the school’s virtual morning announcements on Oct. 2.

The educator spent three years growing his hair out to donate.

Caldwell made the decision to get his locks chopped so he can contribute to the campus’ ongoing Acts of Kindness project. The project began five years ago, and campus students and staff are hoping to complete 10 million acts of kindness by the end of the school year. So far, they’ve topped 6.5 million acts.

“It’s so important to be kind,” Caldwell said. “It seems like it might not be hard, and it’s just something small, (but) it can change someone’s entire world.”

Caldwell donated his locks and raised money to give to Hair We Share, a nonprofit that provides hair solutions to anyone who has lost their hair due to medical conditions.

“(Students) look up to him, and they see him as somebody they want to be like,” Lake Pointe Principal Dr. Audrey Arnold said. “I think for our students to see an adult modeling kindness in their life in words and actions. That’s something that makes a powerful impact on a child’s heart.”

Other acts of kindness in the project have included:

▪ Raising money and supplies for other schools that experienced loss in Hurricane Harvey.

▪ Collecting coats every winter and canned goods for families in need.

▪ Raising funds for families going through childhood cancer.

▪ In the spring, they challenged all Lake Pointe families to complete the Owl Family Kindness Challenge. The school’s mascot is the Owls.

▪ Providing a calendar of daily kindness challenges and also encouraging each family to come up with their own kindness project.

This was Caldwell’s time to grow and donate his locks.

“I grew it because I knew it was a simple act of kindness on my part that could mean a lot to someone else. I began growing it out three years ago with the intention of cutting it and donating it again,” he said. “I also wanted to do this because I have had family and friends who have had to deal with breast cancer, and I wanted to support them the best way I could.

“I also raised $275 personally through having friends and family donate on Facebook, and that money will help pay for the expenses into making a wig.”

Arnold said the first year of the five-year Acts of Kindness project began with a challenge of performing 200,000 acts of kindness. Each year the challenge has grown as students, teachers, and families have embraced kindness as their “Owl” language, she said.

“Our goal is to be the kindest school on the planet,” she said. “Our students are learning that kind acts can be a simple as holding a door open, encouraging a classmate on a math project, inviting someone to play, or standing up for a friend who is being teased.”

Hair We Share was founded in 2014 by a family-owned custom wig business. They started after a huge influx of hair donations were given to a young teenage girl. After seeing the community come together, they continued making wigs for those who need it. The wigs have a value of around $3,000, and they are given away free.

They help those who may have alopecia areata, head trauma, accident and burn victims, and those who go through chemotherapy. For more information, go to Hairweshare.com.

And yes, Caldwell does plan on donating his hair again in the future.

“I decided that I will begin growing my hair out again in January, after my mother has her wedding,” he said.

“The reason I chose to donate my hair at Lake Pointe was for the students to see. I want to be the best model of kindness and generosity that I can possibly be. I want to positively impact as many students as I can, and hopefully inspire them to be just a little kinder and generous each day.”