Mohawk for money

PALMER -- Some may call Penny Gillen crazy, but those who really know her call her something much better -- a friend. A friend with a really wild hair cut, however.

Wednesday night, Gillen's friends shaved her head, leaving only a purple mohawk. A purple mohawk won the "election," in which votes on what to do with Gillen's hair were represented by dollars -- dollars that ultimately were donated to the American Cancer Society.

"I was going to shave my head to support a friend of mine who has breast cancer, but I've always wanted to shave it and I thought that would be too selfish," Gillen said before her haircut. "So I came up with a way to raise money."

Originally, Gillen was going to do it as a fund-raiser for her friend, but her friend had other ideas.

"I asked her if I could raise the money for her, but she said no, she wanted it to go to the American Cancer Society, so that's what we're doing," Gillen explained.

Gillen raised $1,150 through collection jars, in only two weeks. Then, on Wednesday night, she raised another $850 by auctioning off the right to shave her head.

Most of the money came from coworkers at Matanuska Telephone Association, where Gillen is a systems administrator. Her coworkers said her volunteering to shave her head for charity shows what type of person Gillen is.

"Penny is the neatest person," Joan Hope, Gillen's friend and coworker at MTA, said. "Who else do you know who would shave her head and get a purple mohawk?"

There were three choices at the voting booth -- to allow Gillen to keep her hair, to shave her bald or the purple mohawk option. Every donation meant another vote, although Gillen said she knew what the outcome would be, even before the money was tallied.

"I let them do the purple mohawk because I knew that would raise the most money," Gillen admitted.

Most of the money came from MTA employees, and Gillen also received between $200 and $300 from friends in the Lower 48 who "voted" with their wallets.

"I do crazy stuff all the time, but nothing this crazy," she said. "I'm telling everyone it's my mid-life crisis."

Since she announced her intentions friends have told her how fast her hair will grow back -- or how slow it grows. Gillen said she just may surprise everyone, however.

"Who knows? I'll probably like it and keep it," Gillen said.

Contact Casey Ressler at valleylife@frontiersman.com.