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Milton teacher has head shaved after fund drive for Haiti

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Milton hairdresser Nichole Roberts shaves the head of Northside Intermediate School teacher Zach Groelle at an assembly Friday. Groelle agreed to the shaving if students raised $1,750 in a penny war for the Haitian earthquake relief effort. The final tally was $2,300.

MILTON — Hair hit the gym floor Friday at Northside Intermediate School in Milton, as students celebrated surpassing their school fund drive goal for "Let's Hair it For Haiti."

The payoff: One lucky teacher got his head shaved at a schoolwide assembly.

Friday's event capped Northside's annual penny war, which the school decided to use this year to benefit the Haiti earthquake relief effort.

"This year, helping Haiti was the obvious choice," Associate Principal Keith Schneider said.

Friday's head shaving was an extension of the penny war held in February. It started out with a beard grow-a-thon involving nine male teachers. At the end of each round, students competing in the penny war got to eliminate a teacher from the contest. At the end, one teacher had to dye his beard Red Hawks red.

But the beard contest didn't go far enough. So Northside PE teacher Zach Groelle raised the ante, pledging that if the school raised $1,750 in the penny war, he'd let students shave off his hair.

"The beard thing was great, but when Zach said, 'I want to put you guys over the top,' that was it. We just went for it," Schneider said.

The drive surpassed its goal. Friday, the school presented the American Red Cross with a check for $2,300.

"We thought it would be prudent to donate to Red Cross because of their strong foothold in Haiti," Schneider said.

Friday afternoon, students gathered in the school gym to watch Groelle get his head shaved. Using a clipper, several students, a hairdresser, Principal Sarah Stuckey and Dave Diestler of the Red Cross took swipes at Groelle.

The hair fell. The students screamed. It was a madhouse.

Groelle took the shaving like a champ. Afterward, he stood up and rubbed his head, doing a full turn so students could admire his new 'do.

"What a final hoo-ra," Schneider said.