NORWICH – More than 120 people gathered at the Park Place Restaurant and Lounge Saturday for the 9th annual St. Baldrick’s Head-Shaving Event and fundraiser for childhood cancer.
At the beginning of Saturday’s event, more than $13,500 in donations had already been raised by participants; by the end the night, an additional $5,175 had been amassed, bringing the total amount raised to approximately $18,750.
Proceeds from the event will be donated to nearby hospitals which treat childhood cancer, such as Golisano Children's Hospital, a part of the SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. Subsequently, the hospitals which will be receiving the donations raised Saturday are the same hospitals most likely to treat children from Chenango County who are suffering from cancer.
“We are right in the neighborhood of what we raised last year and the event is still open to donations,” said lead organizer A. Jones, who took the reins this year from longtime organizer Tracy Chawgo. Although this is Jones first time acting as lead organizer, he has been involved in the annual event since its inception and has himself been a shavee four times. “It went really well and everyone had a good time,” he added, summing up Saturday’s event.
The event sported a number of silent and Chinese auctions along with 50/50 raffles, but the main attraction were the head shavings. Thirty-two people, eight of whom were women, voluntarily went bald Saturday to raise money ‘on their heads’ to help fund research on childhood cancers. The participants sat two at a time in front of a large crowd, which filled Park Place’s main dinning hall to capacity. To the cheers of encouragement from those gathered, the 32 participants proceeded to have their heads shaved in order, beginning with those who were able to raise the most amount of money.
“I am doing this for the kids who don’t have a choice about being bald,” said shavee Michelle Kemp, who managed to raise the most amount of money at $3,550, nearly double her $2,000 goal. Kemp began fundraising for Saturday’s event in January, hosting a chili cook off at a local bar, as well as looking to her family and friends for support, and collecting cans and bottles.
“I’ll be here next year,” she said, adding her encouragement to others to also participate as a shavee. “I have two healthy kids and the feeling you get when you go to the doctor and hear something is wrong can be overwhelming. To hear the words cancer though is unimaginable; they are just kids.”
As a national organization, St. Baldrick’s Foundation has donated $136 million to childhood cancer research over the past twelve years and is seconded only by the federal government. Over the past eight years, the Chenango County St. Baldrick’s fundraiser has contributed more than $129,000, hosting additional fundraisers aside from the annual head shaving event throughout the course of the year.
“We are trying to raise money to help development and research for treatments for childhood cancer and as good a time as we have doing it, we hope a time comes when we no longer have to,” said Jones.
To make a donation online, go to stbaldricks.org/events/Norwich, or call (888) 899-2253.