Planet heads to orbit university starting Feb. 17

    PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – Cancer research and space exploration – two divergent topics, both of which are no laughing matter. But later this month the University of Maine at Presque Isle takes a lighthearted approach to both with a serious purpose.
    Planet Head Day is equal parts education, fund-raising and recreation when the party gets under way Feb. 17 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. poolside at UMPI’s Gentile Hall.
The date coincides with the flight of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, about to pass Jupiter on a journey to Pluto and places beyond.
“We’re celebrating one of NASA’s most recent endeavors,” said Jeanie McGowan, outreach coordinator of the UMPI Northern Maine Museum of Science. “As the New Horizons spacecraft passes by Jupiter, we’ll be painting our heads like planets or Jupiter’s moons.”
That’s right, painting heads.
Getting the ball rolling is Dr. Kevin McCartney, director of the Northern Maine Museum of Science, who has agreed to shave his own pate and become the campus’ first official Pluto Head.
“We think bald is beautiful,” McGowan said. “We invite those with very short buzzes or no hair to become planet heads.”
McGowan is speaking from firsthand experience. The recent breast cancer victim – now survivor – currently sports her own bald head due to recently completed chemotherapy.
“The loss of my hair to chemo has been a great challenge for me,” said McGowan, who had long hair since 1966. “I think there is a certain kinship among bald-headed cancer patients and probably most of us see it as just another part of our successful therapy.”
McGowan admits it was “a bit of a shock” the first time she saw her bald self in the mirror. “I began to play with the idea of using my head for some purpose,” she said.
An artist at heart, McGowan began to regard her head as a smooth, spherical canvas.
“It provided an opportunity to be a hairless woman on a playful, yet serious path, to demystify chemo baldness and find some purpose and meaning beyond the obvious,” she said.
That’s the point of Planet Head Day.
“This is a duel purpose fun day to celebrate life’s milestones in technology and the wonderful human ability to surmount the impossible,” McGowan said. “Mankind has met and conquered phenomenal challenges in our brief history on this planet and in the last few decades we have reached out to the vast unknown of outer space with technology born of wisdom and passion.”
She said the The New Horizons mission—on which UMPI is an education and public outreach partner — is just such an example. As it makes its way to Pluto, the piano-sized New Horizons spacecraft is currently approaching Jupiter, which is the point of the celebration on the 17th. The spacecraft will get an assist from Jupiter’s gravity that speeds up its trip to Pluto, while training its science instruments on a giant planet in preparation for the groundbreaking images it will provide when it passes Pluto in eight years. Traveling 100 times faster than a jetliner, the spacecraft will reach Pluto and its moons in July 2015.
That’s the future. In the meantime, Planet Head Day participants are invited to join McCartney in the ‘bald is beautiful look’ one way or another.
“Expect to see Kevin orbiting around during the festivities trying to determine if he is a true planet, a dwarf planet or an ice ball,” McGowan said.
For the daring, Hometown Barber Shop in Caribou will supply a professional barber to be on hand to provide free buzz cuts. Vouchers for free buzz cuts before the event at Dwight’s Barber Shop in Presque Isle are available at Gentile Hall during normal business hours. As an alternative, and less permanent option, skullcaps will be for sale at the party.
On-site artists will then paint any and all heads – buzzed or skull capped – with harmless, washable theatrical makeup. At 1 p.m. all painted heads are invited to take the plunge into the pool for a group photo. They hope to have all eight planets plus Pluto and the major moons of Jupiter represented.
“It’s going to look like planets floating in the water,” said McGowan, who will be painted as Jupiter.
While the buzz cuts are free, a $10 individual or $5 family rate donation is requested for the skull caps with all proceeds donated to CANCER, Aroostook County’s only regional cancer support group. Any appropriate length hair shavings will be sent to Locks of Love.
Planet Head Day is open to the public and refreshments will be provided. An adult must accompany children in the pool. For more information, contact McGowan at 768-9747 or McCartney at 768-9482.