Every year, on the Saturday closest to St. Patrick’s Day, my town hosts a party. No corned beef and cabbage or green beer is seen, though. Instead, there are a lot of bald heads. The men, boys and even a few women of this community raise money for St. Baldrick’s by shaving their heads in solidarity with kids with cancer.
St. Baldrick’s is an organization that funds pediatric cancer research. Cancer that affects infants, children, teens and young adults acts differently and needs to be treated differently that adult cancers. There are long term consequences to treatment that need to be studied and supportive care to be funded.
My family got involved with St. Baldrick’s when my son was in second grade. His elementary school fields a team of participants every year, and Alex decided he wanted to join. He had heard that a neighborhood girl was battling osteosarcoma and wanted to help. After making sure he understood what it would be like to be bald, we signed him up.
Alex really hates clippers. He has never been a buzz cut kind of kid.
The next year, he was ready to do it again. This time, my daughter joined him. She donated ten inches of curly, red hair to Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths program. We also knew two more kids with cancer—a neighborhood boy and the little sister of one of Alex’s classmates.
This year, Alex is getting ready to shave his head again. He hates the process of getting his head shaved. It hurts because he lets it get so long prior to the big day. He likes how it feels to help people, though, and he recognizes that he has the choice. Kids with cancer don’t.
If you are interested in supporting Alex’s fundraising efforts, you can donate here. His dad will be sitting next to him on stage for the first time. We set a rather lofty goal of raising $1500, and with less than a week to go, we’ve only just passed the halfway point. Sadly, we’ve also added another warrior to our list—the granddaughter of a coworker.
From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for your contribution.
**Susan here. FYI for Mac/Safari users! I was trying to make a donation for a couple of days and kept getting a disconnect after I had filled out all the forms and entered my credit card number. It appears that this site doesn’t play well with Safari. I was able to make my donation using Firefox though. Save yourself some time and use a different browser to donate. Also, I have met Alex and I can tell you he is a truly fabulous kid with an enormous heart.
