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Longhaired Rutgers University students descended upon the College Avenue campus this Lag ba'Omer not because the prohibition of cutting one's hair during the Omer period just ended, but because they wanted to make a difference in the lives of children with serious illnesses.

On May 2 in New Brunswick, Haircuts for Hope, a student organization under the auspices of Rutgers Hillel, held haircuts for donors as well as a carnival for chronically ill children and their families. The hair will be donated to Chai Lifeline and the Starlight Children's Foundation, for children in need suffering from cancer and other diseases.

The event drew 200 beneficiaries (children with their families) of Chai Lifeline and Starlight, in addition to about 75 student volunteers. Haircuts for Hope initially expected 30 hair donors, but had 50 by the end of the afternoon, Hillel Executive Director Andrew Getraer announced that evening at Hillel's Student Leadership Appreciation Banquet.

Rutgers previously hosted a hair-donation organization called Buzzing for Change in March 2008, but since that organization couldn't make it back this year, students formed their own group and put a new spin on the event by adding the carnival for sick children.

"We also wanted to make this interactive and show the Rutgers students 'here are the kids you are actually going to be helping,'" Rutgers senior Lauren Glassman, one of the event's organizers, said. Glassman said she was inspired to organize Haircuts for Hope by donating her hair at the 2008 event, and also working in the hematology and oncology departments of Mount Sinai Children's Hospital in New York this past summer. Since Haircuts for Hope became its own campus group, Glassman said she has received numerous emails from students of all walks of life looking to help.

"It has kind of spread throughout Rutgers," Glassman said.

It takes a number of donations to form one wig for a child who needs hair, and those seeking to donate needed to give at least 6 inches because that is the amount of hair visible -- and looks natural -- when a baseball cap or bandana is placed on top of it, explained Danielle Barta, another Haircuts for Hope organizer.

Barta said she initially joined the student group because she had a cousin who died from cancer, but now realizes she is involved because all sick children "have a hard time going through whatever they are going through."

Rutgers sophomore Ahuva Cices, who donated her hair at the event, said she had a personal connection to the cause because her cousin was just diagnosed with leukemia, and that she knows "Chai Lifeline is helping out, and I just want to give back a little bit."

Crystal Olson, a Rutgers junior, said she has been thinking about donating her hair for a long time, and that "since the kids would be here this was a great opportunity to do it."

While the hair donations were important, the carnival provided a much-needed diversion for families with children who are always going back and forth between home and the hospital, said Blumie Stein, a volunteer for Chai Lifeline in Lakewood.

"These families have stress every single day," Stein said.