Maddison Zetterberg has a big heart and a desire to help others.

Recognizing other children in need, the 10-year-old Algona girl wanted to give something back. As she sat bravely in the barber’s high chair at Cascade Beauty College last Saturday, Maddison was prepared to shed the long hair she had been growing for the past two years.

With family and friends looking on, hairstylist Courtney Peetz carefully clipped Maddison’s 11-inch braided locks as a donation to a good cause. Locks of Love, a public non-profit organization, provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada who are suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.

“It’s something I wanted to do,” said Maddison, a home-schooled fifth-grader and the oldest of Dan and April Zetterberg’s six children. “I saw it on a website and find out how I could help. To do this, I feel really, really good.”

The college, under owners Louie and B.J. Boyer, is offering free haircuts Saturday to anyone willing to donate their hair to Locks of Love. The hair must be at a minimum 10 inches in length, cannot touch the ground and mailed by the donor to the organization.

The college also asks area salon hairstylists to contribute to the cause Saturday.