By Cindy Ziervogel

Jared Sheen is a caring person of action, and maybe it’s because he’s the oldest kid. Well, sort of. Jared comes from a family of six kids and aside from his three older siblings, Danielle, Jennifer and Brittany who are in their 20s, his brother Ethan is 9. His sister Emily is 9.  Jared is also 9 and a triplet, but is quick to mention that he’s the oldest of the three.  Even though it’s only by a few minutes, Jared wears this title like a badge of honor.

Jared is the son of Christina and Doug Sheen. Christina says Jared is the caretaker of the bunch. Regardless of why Jared is empathetic, his most well-known act of caring for others began two years ago when an Exley Elementary School morning announcement caught his attention.  

The news item was about a girl who grew her hair to her knees and then cut and donated it so it could be made into a wig. Her 10-inch ponytail went to Locks of Love, a public nonprofit organization that provides hairpieces to children under age 18 who are suffering from long-term medical conditions.  

Jared thought it was a pretty cool thing to do to help someone else in this way. And it was just a few months later that something caught Jared ’s attention enough to want to help out like the girl from his school. He was taking piano lessons from Susan Terry, who was also the music director at his church, Living Word Lutheran Church. The first thing he noticed about “Miss Susan” was that his mom seemed sad when she sent her flowers. Next, she suddenly showed up with her head wrapped in a bandana and Jared wanted to know what was wrong.  His mom explained to him about his piano teacher’s cancer, chemotherapy and its side effect of hair loss.  

When Terry first heard what Jared was doing to honor her, she was overwhelmed with emotion. To this day, with Jared ’s hair now styled like a typical 9-year-old boy, she thinks back to what he did for her. It meant so much more than just growing long hair to the middle of his back. She still gets choked up when she thinks about the caring nature of her young piano student.

“My eyes filled with tears at the incredible thoughtfulness of this little child,” said Terry. Jared said that when he was going to get a hair cut he was going to give it to her. “I assumed, wrongly, that he meant he was getting his hair cut in a week or two. Little did I know that he would let his hair grow to be long enough to ‘qualify’ for Locks of Love.”

It took him nearly a year to grow it long enough to be of use to the organization.  During the journey he dealt with hot weather and a sweaty neck. And then there were the funny looks and a few snide comments, too. Jared said that once, when he got a Happy Meal at McDonald ’s, the lady behind the counter gave him the meal with a “girl” toy inside.  

Christina said that Jared’s act of kindness was exceptionally significant to their family because Jared’s paternal grandfather died of cancer four years ago. “Jared resembles Joseph Sheen,” she said.  “Grandpa had a whole head of thick hair and his chemo took it away.”