Pole Vaulter Sheds His Locks for Charity

Apparently, it can pay to have good hair. South Carolina senior pole vaulter Seth Rabinowitz recently raised $600.00 for the Children’s Miracle Network by getting fellow students on campus to pay to cut his voluminous locks.

Rabinowitz after his haircut.

“I walked out to Greene Street with a table, a couple of signs, a pair of clippers and some scissors, and I just let the student body who were walking by donate some money and cut my hair,” said Rabinowitz, who is a biological sciences major. “However much you donated, you got to use a certain pair of clippers and cut a certain amount of hair off. It didn’t take long! I did have a lot of hair, though.

“The Children’s Miracle Network is a popular and recognizable charity on our campus. I wanted to give to a cause that really meant something. Children’s cancer isn’t something that I struggled with personally, but cancer is in my family. My grandfathers on both sides of my family passed from cancer-related illnesses. I thought if I could help children with cancer then that would be more beneficial than an organization people don’t know about, and I’d have to explain it over and over.”

His grandfather, Merwin Rabinowitz, played basketball for the Gamecocks in the 1950s.

He got the idea to cut his locks for cash after seeing a friend do it, so he first tried something similar a couple of years ago and had tremendous success.

“I figured if he could raise a couple hundred dollars, then I can, too,” Rabinowitz said. “I had much longer hair then, and I raised about $1,100.00 the first time. It was getting to the point where my hair was becoming more of a nuisance than a benefit, so I figured I’d run it back!”

“It wasn’t that big of jump for me to do it, but I do miss it sometimes.”

Rabinowitz was permitted to put his table out on campus through his fraternity. While Rabinowitz was glad to pay it forward, there was some personal benefit from his new haircut.

“Of course it helped with my pole vaulting as I’m a lot faster now,” Rabinowitz said with a laugh. “I like my hair long as I like being that big personality type, and the hair definitely goes along with that. It amplifies my energy a little bit more.”

While his hair didn’t have mystical powers like that of Samson in the Bible, Rabinowitz noted that he did achieve a personal best in his first track and field meet after the big haircut.

“I grew up with short hair, so I already know I don’t look too shabby with it,” Rabinowitz said. “It wasn’t that big of jump for me to do it, but I do miss it sometimes.

“In cross country meets in high school, we used to cut our hair before the conference (meet). I guess it’s been a tradition for a little bit.”

As his hair takes its time to grow back, Rabinowitz said he’ll likely cut it off again for charity when the time is right.