New Haven Independent

It all had to do with this man, band teacher Joseph Collette, and this young student, Caryssa Rodriguez, who has one of the leading roles in the school’s upcoming production of Annie.

No, nothing bad happened. It was a close shave of the best kind having to do with Collete’s handsome, wavy, salt-and-pepper gray hair.

Here’s a hint: Mr. Collette is going to play Daddy Warbucks. Getting warm?

You see, Collette is attached to his hair in the usual way, but he also rather likes it. However, the campaign to raise $4,000 for the first-ever band uniforms for the John S. Martinez “Dragons” was not progressing as swiftly as anticipated. (Proceeds from the production of Annie are also raising money for the same purpose.) So 20 days ago Collette turned to his young instrumentalists and said, “Kids, if you raise $2,000 in 20 days, I’ll shave off all my hair for the role of Daddy Warbucks.”

And what was the response? “Whoa, talk about motivation,” reported Collette as he prepared for the operation to be performed by Julien Morant, of Moe Loves Barber Shop at Lombard and Rowe streets.

“The kids immediately said, ‘You’re goin’ down, Mr. Collette.’ They of course meant my hair, and they became really motivated. I sweetened the pot by saying I would offer prizes for the kids who raised the most money: first prize being an acoustic guitar and two lessons; second and third prizes being free private lessons from yours truly on any instrument, and some gift certificates or cash.”

They rose to the challenge, $2,000 raised. Caryssa Rodriguez took the gold, and with it the clippers. For raising $300 (from the pals in her mom’s office and then over the top with $100 from her dad’s business) she got to assist Morant (“go front to back, and be sure not to stop”) in making the first inroad toward Collette’s temporary baldness for theatrical purposes only.

As Annie’s director, fifth-grade teacher Jamie Coady, looked on (in the photo at the top of this story), Caryssa and the barber proceeded to clip and snip, Collette, a band teacher since 1992, was heard to moan, “Gee, and I was having such a good hair day. “

Here we are at the three quarters point, when Mr. Collette, never one to lose a teaching moment, called out to the assembled audience — all cast members and fundraisers — while the rest of the school’s 500 or so students looked on the hairy spectacle via closed circuit TV. He said: “What’s the lesson you learn from this? I think it’s that when you say you’re going to do something. You do it. You keep your word. It’s about integrity. Right, students?”

As they nodded, of course, in the affirmative, other, perhaps less deep thoughts arose which a reporter elicited and then dutifully took down. Here’s a sampling: “He looks like an old guy suddenly.” “He looks like my fur ball.” Then one merciful young girl called out, “No, he looks handsome.” “Uh uh,” countered a young man, “I’d say he looks like Santa.” “Baldie!” “No, now he can go on Broadway.” “Are you going to polish your head, Mr. Collette?”

“Will you love me no matter what?” called out Collette.

“Yes,” the students said.

“Gee,” he said, “I hope my daughter recognizes me this afternoon. I think I forgot to tell her what was happening.”

In gratitude for having elicited the remarks above, Collette offered to contribute his hair to a reporter for an obviously necessary toupee.

After Barber Morant applied some gel and some spray, the patient rose, looking very much like Daddy Warbucks already, and posed with the rest of the cast. Caryssa got to be the first one to touch the dome. Shirleynn Feliciano, who will be playing Grace in the play, smiled approvingly nearby.

This is also, of course, serious business, anexample of a fun-loving yet dedicated teacher at work. After three years of working with some 100 students taking band lessons with him (combined from Martinez and Fair Haven’s Jepson School, where Collette also teaches), Collette decided it was time to take the next step. “I took 25 kids recently to a music festival near Middlebury, and they played so well and are so proficient at marching, it was just time to get them uniforms.”

Contributions, inspired by Collette’s now vanished hair, add up to $2,000, but the total needed for 25 uniforms is $4,000. Tickets for Annie, which cost $3, will go towards reaching that goal, but you certainly are also permitted to write a check as you enter for $160, the approximate cost of a single uniform. The performances will be at the Martinez School on Wednesday and Thursday at 6 p.m., at 100 James St., under the direction of Coady and Collette.