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This is the last of Chris’s profiles of the seven volunteers who are Dancing With the Starz.

When Maria Elena Pujol takes the stage at Dancing With the Starz August 11, she probably won’t be thinking about an event in Castro’s Cuba when she was six years old.

Maria Elena will be concentrating on her performance, of course, but the genesis of why she’s up there, throwing her heart, soul and talent into this fundraiser was what happened on a day in Havana filled with both horror and promise.

Maria Elena’s father, a businessman in Cuba, was thrown into a prison camp soon after Castro arrived because he wanted to take his family to America. Eventually her uncles escaped to Florida in a small boat. They later managed to get visas for Maria Elena and her parents. They left Cuba on October 20, 1969.

At the Havana airport, just before takeoff, Cuban authorities captured two young teenagers hiding under the plane. Castro’s men shot the boys on the spot and dragged their bodies around to frighten other Cubans.

“That’s when my childhood ended,” Maria Elena says. “I was robbed of my innocence, seeing those boys killed because they wanted to get to freedom. It’s one reason why I have such passion for Youth Haven.”

That emergency shelter for abused and abandoned children in Collier County is the charity for which Maria Elena has been raising money. Growing up in Boca Raton, Maria Elena began cutting her father’s hair when he was unhappy with the local barbers. She soon realized she had a flair for hair, a talent unaffected by her dyslexia disability.

“I felt free and creative with hair,” she says.

Her dad got a job stuffing pillows at Castro Convertibles, but he quickly became a designer. He held three jobs while her mother worked as a housekeeper. Maria Elena became a citizen and worked her way up in hair design; hired at 18 to train with partners of hair care icon Vidal Sassoon. Eventually, she left that whirlwind world to marry and move to Marco Island.

“I wanted to raise my daughter here. When I became a single parent, I felt safe here.”

Maria Elena’s daughter, Jennifer, became the driving force in her life, encouraging her to open her own shop, Maria Elena’s Hair Design, 14 years ago, and to buy a home.

On January 28, 2002, Maria Elena’s world crumbled again when Jennifer was killed in a car accident coming home from Lely High School.

“Half of me left with her, but I still could hear her cheering me on to live and be strong. I buried myself in my salon. But hearing about Youth Haven, meeting those beautiful children, cutting their hair, hearing their hopes and fears, brought me alive again.”

She began to spread the word about Youth Haven and to raise money to help the shelter do its inspired work.

“So many clients and friends, even strangers rallied to help with time, talent and money. This community was so supportive in my daughter’s passing and now, again, in helping me help Youth Haven. I am so blessed to be on Marco Island.

“Please tell anyone who wants to donate how to do so.”

Youth Haven’s phone: 774-2904 ext. 205.

Maria Elena sees parallels in her childhood and the early lives of Youth Haven’s children.

“The precious kids at Youth Haven have been robbed oftheir innocence. I relate to them. I found safety andfreedom and hope in America. These children have found that at Youth Haven.”

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Chris Curle is a former news anchor for CNN and for ABC TV stations in Atlanta, Houston and Washington, D.C. E-mail: chris@chriscurle.com.