By RICHARD TEW
Updated: 10.19.09
The Heavenly Hats Foundation is a foundation that was set up some four years ago to aid cancer patients or patients suffering from other diseases that might lead to hair loss, with a decorative hat.
Anthony D. Leanna, a 17-year-old high school student from Green Bay, Wisconsin, started the organization when he was just 10-years-old. The motivation for the service is best summed up in his own words from his website: “Hair loss during the battle of a disease can be uncomfortable, depressing and at times even a little humiliating. The hat is just a small symbol of hope and love, but my wish is that it will have the power to brighten the patient’s day so that they can look to the future with a smile.”
Citing his grandmother’s own battle with breast cancer when he was a child; Leanna decided at that point that he wanted to do something to help those brave souls fighting for their lives, in some small way.
Deer Park High School answered the call to service by organizing and putting on a ‘Hat Parade’ of its own. The idea originally came from Arnold Adair, who is the superintendant of schools for Deer Park. From there, Ernie Salazar, who is the north campus principal, picked it up and sent it to Sara Soto. Soto, who along with her duties as a science teacher and science department chair, is also a student council sponsor. Once the idea was presented to the student council sponsors, it was decided to make this project the first student council project of the new school year. “It looked like a worthy cause and I thought it would be a neat project for the kids to do,” said Soto.
The effort paid off as some 330 armbands where sold at $1 a piece, netting $330 for the Heavenly Hats Foundation. The winners of the hat building competition were Sergio Sanchez and Christopher Scholz; Sanchez’s hat, he made himself.
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