Viewers know him as an unflappable reporter and amiable anchor on KHON2’s “Wake Up 2day” show. So folks who tuned in on Halloween morning last year were shocked when a visibly shaken Jai Cunningham subjected himself to a live, on-air buzz cut.
The previous day, Cunningham had learned that a Mainland friend had been murdered, a victim of domestic violence. The news shook him to his core. “I lay in bed that night crying, sweating, having heart palpitations,” he recalls. “All I could think of was to do something that could be both a tribute to her and a defining moment – a gesture that would awaken people and send a call for action.”
Aside from confiding in co-anchor Olena Heu, Cunningham told no one about his plans. It stunned almost everyone when he spoke about his fallen friend in a quavering voice and shared his personal experience with domestic violence as Heu cropped his hair with electric clippers.
Cunningham is a survivor of domestic violence and has done public service announcements for the Domestic Violence Action Center, walked in the Men’s March Against Violence, and talked to students about how he, his mother, and brother were victims of domestic abuse. “I promised that day on air that to honor anyone in Hawai‘i killed because of domestic violence, I would shave my head again and again and again to highlight that domestic violence is real and that it affects us all,” he says.
The video, posted on YouTube, attracted more than 300,000 views, and Cunningham received hundreds of supportive emails.
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