Owasco Elementary student Nick Alberici raised more than $300 for his school's adopt-a-family program, and all he got was a severe case of hat-hair.

Nick, 7, collected donations from family and friends while wearing a gray Old Navy ski cap for 89 consecutive hours beginning Thursday, Oct. 19. The feat was not without difficulty.

“Taking a shower with it was hard. I tried not to get my hat wet and it was really hard,” Nick said.

The idea for the project came to Nick rather naturally. He began wearing his hat for prolonged periods of time in the weeks prior to the 89-hour weekend. After a few 24-hour stretches, Nick's mother, Megan, suggested he put his penchant for the hat to good use.

Owasco's adopt-a-family program immediately came to Nick's mind. He and his 9-year-old brother, Anthony, had already participated in the project at school.

“The money will buy a family coats and things they don't have,” Nick said.

From the outset Nick had no clue how successful his hat-wearing cause would become.

“At first he wanted to raise $50, but within five or six hours he already had that,” said Jeff Alberici, Nick's father.

One of the biggest obstacles to Nick's project came at Sacred Heart Church, where he had previously been asked to remove his hat during services. However, the church was willing to overlook the rule in light of Nick's cause.

“We sat in the back row of the church that day,” Jeff said.

A few other close calls threatened Nick's quest. A young girl from his neighborhood jokingly removed the hat without knowing about the fund-raising project, and a middle-school player on Jeff's lacrosse team also yanked it off in jest.

“They felt really bad about it when they found out what Nick was doing,” Jeff said.

Nick was finally forced to remove the hat Monday morning at school. He already plans to once again don his ski cap for a charitable cause.

“I want to try and wear it in the summer for a long time, when there's no school,” Nick said.