DALTON, Ga. — A group of Antioch Elementary School students who wanted to brighten the moods of young cancer patients going through chemotherapy and possibly losing their hair collected hair dye for the students’ “It’s Just Hair” project.

The students are part of Whitfield County Schools’ Advanced Learning Program for High Achievers (ALPHA).

“We figured since chemotherapy causes them to lose their hair they could dye it first,” said fourth-grader Elijah Torres.

The students got the idea after reading “Candy Bomber,” a book about a pilot who dropped candy to children in Berlin during World War II to make them happy.

The students — Torres, fellow fourth-graders Fernando DeHaro, Julian Gonzalez, Jackie Lopez, Yesenia Mireles, Isaiah Patty, Hector Rios and Rachel Suliveres and fifth-graders Gael Estrada, Reagan Gazaway, Abril Hernandez, Bricia Manzanares, Mady Rose, Angel Suliveres and Kaylee Welch — were inspired to try to do the same.

“The book gave us the idea to spread some cheer to the kids at (Children’s Hospital) at Erlanger who are diagnosed with cancer,” said Torres.

Such projects are a requirement for the fourth- and fifth-grade ALPHA students. Students are required to find a need in the community and a solution.

Shanda Hickman, gifted instruction coordinator for Whitfield County Schools, said the students spent weeks working on their projects to present them during a Social Action Celebration with other ALPHA students in the county school system at the Northwest Georgia College & Career Academy.

Hickman said all students are required to read “Candy Bomber,” and each school designs a social action project.

“They have to come up with action steps, contact people and present to the principal or administration for feedback,” Hickman said.

Antioch gifted teacher Tiffany Beavers brought in three speakers to help the Antioch students narrow down their choices.

“In the beginning of planning, students talked about donating hats and wigs, but learned hospitals have a lot of those already,” Beavers said. “Ashley Zani, a child (life) specialist at Erlanger, mentioned they never have hair dye, so the kids decided to make that their project.”

Other speakers were Holly Shull with the Chattanooga-based Lana’s Love Foundation, which helps children and their families affected by cancer “have fun,” according to its website, and Robyn Bryant of Dalton with The Christian Bryant Foundation, which is named for Robyn Bryant’s daughter Christian, who passed away from acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the age of 18. The Christian Bryant Foundation supports efforts to meet the medical needs of children in Chattanooga and northwest Georgia.

During their research, the students learned at least five children in the area are diagnosed with cancer each year. Erlanger treats 12 to 24 such cases a year, Beavers said.

“We also learned patients are allowed to dye their hair, but don’t always have dye,” Torres said.

To collect dye, the students wrote letters to hair stylists, and they also collected “around $750 to $1,000 in hair dye products” and secured a cart to keep everything organized through Donors Choose, a nonprofit organization that “allows individuals to donate directly to public school classroom projects,” its website states.

Lopez said the best part of the project was seeing the variety of colors collected. Red, blue, yellow, pink, green and turquoise were the colors of some of the nearly 400 bottles of dye.

“It made me feel good to know we were helping other kids,” Lopez said.

The students also created a picture book for the patients to show stylists so they could pick out a color.

Welch said the project was important to her because it was an opportunity to “help (the) kids have fun.”

“This is their last chance to have fun with their hair before they lose it,” she said.

Beavers said she loves how the project impacts cancer patients outside of Whitfield County.

“Kids in Chattanooga, Calhoun, Hixson (Tennessee) and anyone treated at Erlanger will have an option to dye their hair,” she said.

Beavers said she’s proud of the students.

“Their creativity allowed them to do something different and they had a good time with it,” she said.

Rios said after hearing from the speakers he knew they had a great idea, because “we wanted the same thing for patients.”

Other projects presented during the Social Action Celebration included “care” packages for firefighters and inspirational sticky notes and activity bags for children at Hamilton Medical Center, the last one done by Beaverdale Elementary School students.

Jaidyn Fritz, a fifth-grader at Beaverdale, said patients at the hospital can be “bored with nothing to do.”

“The activity bags helps make time go by faster,” he said.

For nearly two months Fritz, Rylee Cagle, Charles Cobb, Yoan Garcia, Chevy Joyce, Aldo Lopez, Kaleb Maddron, Mischa McGuire, Zane Mulkey and Rylee Underwood, all fifth-graders, collected items like crayons, books, notepads and stickers to put in the bags.

Serephia Choate, a teacher at Beaverdale, said the students decided to donate to Hamilton because someone local may benefit from their efforts.

Students worked with Rachel Ogle, community outreach manager for Hamilton Medical Center.

Cobb said he believes their team was meant to make the bags because less than 24 hours after completing them, the son of a Whitfield County teacher received one.

Choate said this is her first year teaching ALPHA students and she has enjoyed it.

“These are hardworking kids who have been together in ALPHA for a long time,” she said. “It’s like a group of siblings who build on each other.”