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Steve Gleason Donates to Locks of Love
Rustin Legendre, NewOrleansSaints.com
Tuesday, September 04, 2007 - 3:35 PM
The Saints made cuts to trim their roster to 53 players early this week, but Tuesday safety Steve Gleason did a little cutting of his own.
Gleason cut his shoulder-length hair and donated it to the Locks of Love Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children 18 and younger with medical hair loss.
Gleason, who has not cut his hair since 2004, got the trim at Paris Parker Salon on Prytania street in New Orleans. The Saints special-teams ace said he is happy to donate his hair to needy children.
“Now that I’ve been donating to Locks of Love for about six or seven years, I’ve learned that there are a lot of disadvantaged children out there. It’s kind of fun for me to grow out my hair, but it also has a lot of meaning because it helps kids in the process,” said Gleason.
The custom-fitted hairpieces are provided free of charge to children whose families meet the Locks of Love Board of Directors guidelines. The organization, which began operation in 1998, has helped over 2,000 children to date.
This is the second time Gleason has donated to Locks of Love. He would gladly give hair more frequently, but donations are required to be at least 10 inches long.
“It’s a three year process. I’ve been able to donate about two and a half times. I told myself if I could do it about two times in my NFL career, it would be a great career. I’ll work on a third donation, but it takes about three years so hopefully three years from now I’ll be doing the same thing,” said Gleason.
Locks of Love has seen its popularity skyrocket since its inception. Thousands of bundles of donated hair arrive as a result of the Internet, word of mouth and media coverage. When a high-profile athlete like Gleason donates to the organization, the good cause receives even more exposure.
But Gleason doesn’t donate his hair for attention.
“It’s the least I can do for kids who are going through some type of chemotherapy or have some sort of situation where they just can’t grow hair,” said Gleason.
Though on injured reserve this year while recovering from a knee injury, Gleason annually ranks among the NFL’s top special teams players. He provided one of the Saints’ top plays of the year in 2006 when he blocked a punt against Atlanta during the first game in the refurbished Superdome after Hurricane Katrina.
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