Awesome giving...

Last Saturday, I shaved my head in honor of those battling cancer. I did it as part of St. Baldrick's Day which is fundraiser for the St. Baldrick's Foundation. The foundation is the second largest contributor of money to cancer research in the world - second only to the US government.

My own participation in this cause was brought about when I heard that my friend Paul was doing it. He  had done it the year before and, I have to admit, I was interested. But then he dared me and, well, you know I can't say no to a dare! I decided to try to raise $1500 and I started actively asking for donations on January 1. I can remember doing fundraisers when I was in school and I always hated it! I hated asking people to give money or to buy something but this was different. I have quite a network of people on Facebook so I used that medium to get the word out. Once I did that, it was on! People really started to give and before the first month was up I was over a third of the way to my goal! Things looked promising!

My sister, Terry, got wind of what I was doing. She has cancer. So she decided that she would also shave her head - just because I was doing it. She's a hair dresser and works (with my niece) at a great place called Carol's Mane St. Hair Design. When Carol heard we were doing this, she asked if we would do a mini-event at her shop on the day I chose to get shaved. We decided to start it at noon and offer refreshments. In the meantime, I kept plugging along with my fund raising by posting it daily on Facebook and sending out emails to my friends and family. By the end of the second month, I was at my goal...and counting.

My experience in raising money for St. Baldrick's has been awesome. Truly awesome. The generosity of people has been outstanding. People I barely knew were giving me donations and some of them were digging deep too! Clearly, cancer research is a cause that stirs alot of people. People were giving in honor of people they knew you had cancer and it's astounding how many of us have been touched by this horrible illness. Some people shared their personal stories with me. I cherish those and trust people put in me in order to tell me those stories. A few weeks before the event, the son of a former colleague of mine passed away. He was 10 years old and had leukemia. Shaymus was a great kid and the nearness of this tragedy made me know for sure that I was meant to keep raising money! So I did and by "shave day" I had over $2500 - a full $1000 more than I had planned! Everyday when I checked the totals I was blown away. Everyday at work, someone would hand me $10, $20, or even $100 and I was blown away again. The kindness of people simply cannot be measured.

So now I am bald and I'm loving it! I'm so proud when people stop and ask me why my head is shaved. I'm so happy to tell them and direct them to the St. Baldrick's website. Next year, Carol's Mane St. wants to stage another event and recruit more people to be shaved. I haven't decided if I will do it again or not but I will help raised funds for sure because I can't remember ever feeling as good about doing something as I feel about having taken part in St. Baldrick's Day!


PS: Shaymus' paternal grandparents have created a foundation in his name. The proceeds go to make sure that children battling cancer have anything they need to make their time in and out of the hospital creative and comfortable. The Shaymus Guinn Foundation