ALLEGANY, N.Y. — As Thomas Callen glanced back at his fellow Allegany-Limestone High School students wearing hats in honor of him, he smiled and quietly remarked that their display of friendship was “kind of nice.”
The Friends of Rachel group at the school organized an effort for students, staff and family to put their hats on for Callen on Thursday to bring awareness to alopecia areata. The autoimmune skin disease has caused hair loss for the freshman athlete, who now wears hats in school.
Teacher Terra Lacroix, advisor to the Friends of Rachel club, said the student group organized the school-wide hat day by selling more than 400 stocking caps with the “Gators” logo for participants to wear on campus. Proceeds from the hat sales will be used by Friends of Rachel to help charitable causes as well as conduct random acts of kindness in the community, which is their mission.
“We’ve been thinking of doing (a school-wide hat day) for quite a while,” Callen said of Friends of Rachel, of which he is a member.
Callen’s mother, Sheila, and other family members, showed up at the school with their stocking caps and fought back tears as they looked around at all the covered heads.
“I just wanted to say the Friends (of Rachel) are a really good support system,” Sheila Callen said. “I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you — and have a wonderful holiday season.”
Sheila Callen said her son was first diagnosed with the disease at the age of 13 while in eighth grade. The disease caused some hair loss for him, but treatment helped. His second bout with alopecia occurred this year and is more extreme.
“I was very concerned with his mood, I wanted to make sure he didn’t get down on himself,” Sheila Callen said of her son. “So I immediately called Terra (Lacroix) and she took it upon herself to educate people in the school” regarding his condition.
Through her work with Friends of Rachel, Lacroix educated students within the club.
“And then they took it outside (the club) and did presentations within the classrooms,” Sheila Callen remarked. The end result has been all positive, she added.
“This has been amazing in helping him,” Sheila Callen said of her son’s demeanor from the awareness generated through the school programs. “It’s special to have a friend, a community and a club within a school that can reach out to a person and really help him make it through a tough time. We’re really grateful.”
Thomas Callen’s sister, Madison, a sixth-grade student, said she, too, appreciates what the club and school have done for her brother.
“I feel like he’s handling it pretty well because he has good supporters,” Madison Callen said. Thomas Callen’s aunt, Christie Davenport, also deals with the disease and understands what her nephew has encountered.
“I’ve had it 23 years,” Davenport shared, noting she was first afflicted with the disease in 1993 when she was the same age as her nephew. At the time, very few people understood the disease and often thought her hair loss was from cancer.
“Awareness of it wasn’t out there,” Davenport recalled. “Nobody knew about it like they do now.”
Davenport said she is happy to be available to talk with her nephew, because the condition can be difficult at times.
“It’s hard, but he has a great support system,” Davenport added.
She said national support and information are available regarding the disease through the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, found online at naaf.org.
“They’re out of California and do research on it,” Davenport said of the foundation. “There are also other organizations that provide awareness for kids, such as for self-esteem.”
