Nadine Clark, center, waits for a hair styling with her daughter, Jessica, 17, left, after donating 11 inches of her ponytail to Locks of Love last Thursday at Hair Again! Salon and Day Retreat. Salon owner Laura Imperial, right, has set a goal of collecting 100 ponytails for the program, which gives free wigs to children who suffer from illnesses that cause hair loss.

A beautician is aiming to cut a lot of ponytails in the next three months. Laura Imperial and her friends want to gather 100 donated 10-inch ponytail clippings to benefit children in Locks of Love, in a campaign to raise cancer awareness and also to kick off the fund-raising season of the Third Annual Camp Out For Cancer.

Imperial, owner of Hair Again! Salon & Day Retreat, 13976 Hilltop Road, Pine Grove, and a cancer survivor, clipped off ponytail No. 14 on Thursday from a nervous donor. Then Imperial clapped her hands and announced to the shop, bustling with beauteous business, that she had just accepted another "pony" for Locks of Love.

The ponytails are sent with official paperwork to Locks of Love, which makes them into wigs given to children who have illnesses that cause them to lose their hair. The wigs are given to children in families earning under $100,000 annually, Imperial said.

Ponytail No. 14 was the brown hair of Nadine Clark, whose daughter, Jessica, 17, gave her support before the cut. Clark was recently diagnosed with cancer and agreed to cut her long hair for the Locks of Love donation, as she would be undergoing chemotherapy and expected to lose her hair.

Ginger Rolf, director of Amador Support, Transportation and Resource Services, which supports cancer patients and families and runs the Camp Out For Cancer, said that a campaign for head shaving and hair donations started last year. Sheriff Mike Prizmich, her husband, Mike, and others shaved their heads and gathering pledges and donations and raised awareness. On the day of Camp Out For Cancer they raised about $1,000.

This year, Rolf and Imperial are setting the goal to gather 100 ponytails. They plan to have a team of hair cutters ready to cut the donations on the spot on stage at Camp Out For Cancer. The team will include stylists from Hair Again!, Chandra Uselton, Jackie Mattingly and Imperial, though others may join, Imperial said. They and stylists from Savage Scissors and A Cut Above are involved in the Look Good, Feel Better program run by STARS, which gives makeup and head wrap tips for chemotherapy patients.

Imperial said Hot Cuts and Castle Cuts salons assisted in the head shaving last year.

She said the requirements to participate in Locks of Love necessitate a pre-registration. To pre-register, people can call the STARS office, Rolf said. Requirements include having clean hair, while the ponytail must be at least 10 inches long. She said the donations are valuable too, in that a real hair wig can cost $6,000.

"If you lose your hair, you can donate it to someone else," Rolf said. "Your loss is their benefit."

Clark did that, giving about an 11-inch ponytail.

Rolf said STARS this year has begun a new program locally to support chemotherapy patients in coping with hair loss, with their own wig program, not connected with Locks of Love.

"We will provide a free wig or head covering to any newly diagnosed cancer patient who is in need of one. They just need to call the STARS office," Rolf said. "The free wigs we are giving to cancer patients are purchased from a wig company using the funds raised from Amador County Bunco for Breast Cancer, which was held in May."

She said any cancer patient in treatment can call the STARS office for more information.

Camp Out For Cancer is an all-night walk-a-thon with teams walking around a track, all raising money for cancer patient support. Ten percent of the money goes to research, Rolf said, while the rest stays local at STARS. The event raised $100,000 last year and in its two years has helped fund the purchase of three vans, including a wheelchair van, which takes cancer patients to doctors' appointments and chemotherapy around the county and the region.

This year's event is 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 16 to 9 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 17, at Argonaut High School, 501 Argonaut Lane, Jackson. The event includes candlelit luminaries written with names of survivors and victims of cancer. The luminaries this year are sponsored by Pacific Gas & Electric Company, with the theme, "Lighting the Way."

About 30 teams had been formed by the end of May and teams can still be formed up until the start of the event.

The Camp Out For Cancer Committee includes Rolf, Chris Bennett, Nina Machado, Joann Hazen, Mike Rolf, Nancy Serna, Chris Molinelli and Tracey Towner-Yep. The STARS Board of Directors includes Shannon Banta, Nina Machado, Aimee Peterson, Phyllis Swensen, Nancy Swensen and Gretchen Carlson.

Amador STARS office is at 631 Court St., Jackson. Online, visit www.amador stars.org.

To pre-register to donate a ponytail or to get a wig or head wrap, contact Nancy Carlisle or Rolf at STARS, 223-1246 or e-mail nancy@amadorstars.org.