Orcas islanders gathered to shear their locks at a potluck and hair-cutting party last week, collecting bags of hair to be made into oil-absorbent booms to help mop up the Gulf of Mexico. Some guests even brought their pets to be shorn for the cause.

Orcasite Guisepi Spadafora hosted the event on July 7 at the STEM property on Crow Valley Road. Hairdressers Ali Boe, from Orcas, and Tea Quinn, from San Juan, volunteered their time for dozens of haircuts throughout the evening.

Spadafora was inspired to collect hair by the San Francisco environmental nonprofit, Matter of Trust. The organization has been featured in National Geographic, the New York Times and more this May as it collected hair from zoo alpacas, barbers and others, using the fiber to make oil-absorbent booms.

The hair and fur clippings are stuffed into pantyhose to create what has been described as “giant fur sausages” designed to soak up crude oil. Matter of Trust said it has used hair booms to help clean up smaller oil spills in the past.

While BP is using synthetic, commercial booms and has rejected the hair booms, volunteers are still using them to soak up oil from area harbors and beaches.

Spadafora heard about the group at an environmental conference in San Francisco, where he said an environmental mycologist spoke about seeding the oiled hair booms with mushroom spores, so that mushrooms can process and filter the crude oil. Mushrooms have been used in the past to clean and detoxify areas soiled by industrial wastes.

Spadafora, who grew up on San Juan Island, operates a school bus that he has converted into what he calls “a teahouse on wheels”. Over the past two years he has traveled up and down the West Coast serving free tea to people with the mission of encouraging dialogue about “peace, the environment and health”. He is currently remodeling his bus at the STEM workshop on Orcas.

For more information on Spadafora’s tea serving mission, see www.freeteaparty.org.

For more information on Matter of Trust, see www.matteroftrust.org.

Missed it? Spadafora will hold another hair-cutting and fund-raising event on Wednesday, July 21 at 5 p.m. STEM is located at 5320 Orcas Road.