HAMMOND â On Friday morning, Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. sat down in his office to receive his first haircut in months.Â
The longtime mayor chatted with others in the room, while 11-year-old Ariyana Alaimo, of Hammond, took a pair of trimmers to his once-full head of hair.Â
Ariyana, a fifth-grader at Harding Elementary School in Hammond, was diagnosed with leukemia more than a year ago, and McDermott chose to raise funds for Ariyana and her family this year, instead of shaving his head for St. Baldrick s Foundation.Â
On Monday, McDermott created a GoFundMe for the family, with an original goal of raising $10,000. As of Friday afternoon, the crowdfunding site had raised $18,459, in addition to $3,000 McDermott gave the family in person.Â