Thank you for joining us for this first Alopecia Life episode of 2024. It's a new year, and I'm so excited to have a feel-good story for you today. Our guests today are Allison & Anthony. I found out about this fabulous family within a group where Allison shared about the hat collection that was growing exponentially after they started a small ask of their friends and family to help support Anthony. Due to the number of hats they were receiving, she knew she wanted to find more kids who might be interested in receiving a hat so she could send them one. When we originally spoke, they were about 2 weeks into their diagnosis. The hat collection was up to 1500 hats and they were looking to donate what they could. Today's interview was at the 6 week mark, and I was impressed to learn more about what's now become Operation Hat Drop and the kindness of the D'Alessandro family and to share it with all of you. *More from Allison: "What started as a hat collection for our son to help him cope with alopecia, has morphed into a movement of kindness. People from all walks of life have come together to help Anthony and other children like him, smile, through the gift of hats...As long as there are hats to send, we plan to keep going!" Thank you for sharing your time with us today. Throughout the interview, Allison shared about the importance of education and awareness, and the ability to do that with Operation Hat Drop has been an amazing opportunity for them to do that as a family.  For those of you who are interested in sending a new hat to Anthony or to another child, please check out the show notes for the mailing address. If you are interested in receiving a hat, please reach out on Instagram  @operationhatdrop to request one. All their contact information can also be found here in the show notes. The alopecia community is one filled with amazing help. If you would like to support them as they ship the hats out, I know the gesture would be appreciated. I'm curious about the unique ways in which this can happen. IG @operationhatdrop email: [email protected] (NEW) Hats can kindly be sent to: 358 Atlantic Ave Massapequa Park, NY 11762 Support the showAlopecia Life provides free resources for school and home education, including a growing list of alopecia books, education videos on YouTube, links to support groups within the US, UK, Canada and more. You will also find access to Head-On, Stories of Alopecia, the Alopecia 101 free course, paid Alopecia Roadmap course for parents of children living with alopecia, and personalized coaching. Together, we can make a difference. To find out more, https://www.alopecialife.com/