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PVSS students raising funds for special foundation

Vernon Morning Star - 11/24/2017

She's watched a relative battle an eating disorder for almost a decade.

Now Jessica Kruger and a handful of her fellow Pleasant Valley Secondary School classmates in Armstrong are doing something fun to help.

The students will raise funds and awareness for Vancouver'sLooking Glass Foundation, which is an intervention and prevention foundation for those with eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia.

"My cousin went to Looking Glass and received a lot of help," said Kruger, a Grade 12 student, of her family member who was first diagnosed at 13 and who turns 21 in January. "She's doing a lot better."

Kruger, Quinn Mellart, Jacob Mullen, Rachel Quarry, Madison Smith and perhaps others have volunteered to have their heads shaved if the school raises $100.

Kruger – a brunette sporting shoulder-length brown hair, trimmed recently after she donated some of her locks for cancer – and Smith had been talking about shaving their heads when Smith came up with the idea of doing it for something good.

The pair and Quarry are members of the school's Me To We club and it was Quarry who brought out Mullen and Mellart to kick-start the fundraiser, which is on now until Dec. 15.

The students will be shaving their heads to promote women's empowerment and health. It will symbolize how women can look beautiful even without something society says makes them beautiful.

"The reaction has been pretty good (from the student body)," said Kruger. "Some people have asked about the correlation of shaving our heads to an eating disorder. This is something we can overcome. It doesn't matter to us if we don't have hair."

If the $100 is successfully raised, Kruger will have her hair cut on Dec. 15. The following Monday, Dec. 18, she'll take the shears to the others taking part in front of the student body.

The Looking Glass Foundation is a rehabilitation home for 14 young people at a time. It also offers summer camps and support groups.