Shear Determination Pays Off in Penny Drive

ORANGE — It cost nearly a million pennies to shave the mustache off Brent Bailey.

The assistant principal at Orange High School started growing facial hair after his last college wrestling match--in 1972.

So he thought sacrificing it was a fitting way to challenge students to collect $10,000 in change as part of a national drive to benefit research for pediatric leukemia.

Twice in a row, Orange High has placed second in the nation for the leukemia penny drive, and students hope that this year they will be on top when results are announced in May.

The dollar goal was reached after students went door-to-door, hit up relatives and generally scoured hiding places to fill three large trash barrels with the booty.

All 2,000 students celebrated with an assembly Friday morning that featured Bailey’s shave and the dramatic shearing of all the hair on the head of Brian Mull, the student activities director.

Mull’s real fear, he confessed, was that he “would look like even more of a dork than I did before.”

His now-bare head felt strange but great, said the 37-year-old Mull, who teaches social studies.

“One of the most important things to teach kids is to be good citizens,” he said. “I’ll do anything to give the least bit of inspiration.”