Jake Dorr clearly is a man who is conscious about his hair. Typically, it’s carefully coiffed into a bit of a peak atop his head, and it’s normally dark brown.

But in order to encourage students at Hoover Elementary School in Corvallis to participate in a fundraiser he created, Dorr, along with Principal Bryan Traylor, pledged to dye his hair pink for a day if the students met or exceeded their fundraising goal.

The bribe worked, and for one very long day, Dorr had flamingo-pink hair. But it was worth it. Thanks to the students’ efforts, the school recently collected 567 pairs of sandals and nearly $900 to send to Senegal, the westernmost country in Africa. Dorr has traveled there twice, and he saw barefoot children everywhere he went.

Inspiring students is part of Dorr’s job. As a teacher in the Learning Resource Center at Hoover, Dorr works with many students who have disabilities and other special needs. Dorr is a painter who has been drawing and sketching since early childhood. He produces primarily abstract landscapes and photo-realistic portraits. He is heavily influenced by Picasso and Warhol, who are his favorite painters.

Dorr is also passionate about photography, as evidenced by the many photographs he’s brought back from Senegal to produce a slideshow for Hoover students. He uses the images to help his students understand the similarities between Senegalese children and Hoover students. He’s hoping that empathy will lead to generosity.

“The kids are just like them. They’re the same age, they have smiles on their faces, they want to be successful,” Dorr said.

His own path as an avid, if unofficial, ambassador to Senegal began when Dorr graduated from Trinity Western University in British Columbia in 2003 with a degree in religious studies and a minor in art. After Door and his wife, Beka, had spent a year back in the Willamette Valley, the couple decided to spend a year in the Czech Republic, teaching high school English, to give them an opportunity to experience life in Europe.

“That was a huge period for me, to see a broad perspective of art experience,” Dorr said. He took the chance to visit major museums around Europe, and came back inspired by what he had seen.

In February 2007, Dorr joined Hoover Elementary, where his love of art proved a way to communicate with special-needs students — especially children within the autism spectrum. His students better understood his lessons when he delivered them through visual descriptions and drawings. He also brought art therapy into the classroom.

“(The class) is highly improvisational in structure,” Dorr said. “Sometimes it’s using simple things like drawing pictures of tasks to be done.”

In March, during spring break, Dorr took his second trip to Senegal, where his mother-in-law, Fiona Kiker, often travels to meet with artisans who supply pieces to her Corvallis non-profit fair trade store, Andando. The trip, which was also supported by his church, Doxology, included working on a number of philanthropic projects in several Senegalese villages. These included creating a basketball court in Keur Soce, building church walls and delivering clothing and other necessities.

It was when Dorr was back home, poring over his many photographs, that he and his wife began noticing something about the children in his photos: None of them were wearing shoes. They saw a need, and they decided to fill it.

“I thought it would be an uplifting kind of project,” Dorr said, to give Hoover kids a lesson in global citizenship — and benefit children who could use the extra help.

The “Sandals-to-Senegal” project was an overwhelming success, although Dorr isn’t sure just how much of that can be attributed to the project’s generous supporters — and how much was his students’ eagerness to see Dorr’s hair turn pink. Either way, it was a success.

“We almost doubled our money goal,” Dorr said. “It was really amazing.”

Dorr, who plans to return to Hoover next year, said he can see the project taking off in many forms.

“I can imagine ‘Sandals for Bolivia’ or ‘Sandals for Nepal,’” he said. Meanwhile, the Sandals for Senegal, with help from Hoover students and the Andando Foundation, soon will be moving across the world to protect some very happy feet.

THE STORY NEXT DOOR

Who: Jake Dorr, 28

What: Artist, educational instructor, activist

Family: Wife, Beka

Hometown: Philomath, PHS Class of 1999

Favorite artists: Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol