More than $200,000 raised for cancer research

More than 100 people will shave their heads today, all to help cancer research for children.

The annual St Baldrick’s Foundation event will be held this evening at BAA gymnasium where 39 people will say goodbye to their locks.

Earlier in the day, 80 people, including students, parents and teachers, will shave their heads at Saltus Grammar School.

For the eighth year in a row, Saltus has participated in the fundraising event for the St Baldrick’s Foundation. A percentage of the funds will go to the Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre.

Saltus has raised $137, 701 so far and more money is expected to pour in today. They have already smashed their target of $120,000.

Susan Heard, director of special partnerships for the St Baldrick’s Foundation, has flown into the island and will be at Saltus for all their head-shaving activities.

Lisa Baumgartner, a member of the board of trustees and organizer of the event, said: “The students are very passionate about raising funds to support children’s cancer research.

‘The upper primary on Monday held a rainbow loom lunch. Green bracelets made at lunch will be sold on Friday.

“We had more than 165 primary students make a donation to participate.

“The momentum is building. We’re expecting today to be an exciting event.”

Ms Baumgartner said it was “wonderful” for Ms Heard to come down and attend the event. 

Asked if any of the students get cold feet, she said: “The school does a really good job of preparing them.

“It originally started (in the upper primary) with Laurel Burgess, a teacher shaving her head.”

Previously, the St Baldrick’s events at Saltus had been limited to secondary school students.

“The children watch other students and teachers getting shaved and they understand what it means.

“I think they’re pretty well prepared for the actual day.”

Upper primary students will be shaved starting at 8:45am and the secondary students will be shaved at 12:30pm.

BAA

Those taking part in the BAA event will have their heads shaved in the evening at the gymnasium for their turn. They have raised $63, 214 so far.

Blogger and PR consultant Jeremy Deacon, and his daughter Hannah, will be amongst the 39 participants.

Mr Deacon said: “My 11-year-old daughter, Hannah, decided out of the blue that she wanted to take part in St Baldrick’s this year.

“She is also going to donate her hair to Locks of Love -— which she has done before.

 “I’ve taken part in St Baldrick’s before and decided to support her by also having my head shaved. Hannah is the driving force behind all this, I am just tagging along.

“She wants to give blood next and has also started her own blog (http://hdeacon123.wordpress.com) to raise awareness of what is happening to the environment.

“I think she is awesome. It takes a lot of guts for an 11-year-old to do this and I am totally in awe of her.

“So far she has raised more than $4,100 and money is still coming in from friends, my and my wife’s colleagues, and complete strangers. To all those who have donated, many thanks.”

Kate Daly is organizing the event at BAA and said: “We have more than 30 shavees and we have a new partner this year, Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre.

“We’re very excited about that. We also have a new set of barbers, Dodd’s Barbershop.

“In fact, one of the barber’s lost a child to childhood cancer so it’s a really special evening for him.

 “We’re excited. We’re always excited.

“There’s a lot of women with beautiful hair who are brave enough to shave it.”

The event starts at 4:30pm, with the first shave happening at 5pm. The shaves are expected to finish by 8:30pm.