Western Courier

Issue date: 4/16/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Katrina Strich Jonathan Wilcoxen, sophomore music education major, was one of many students to shave his or her head during St. Baldrick's Day Sunday afternoon.

People spending time around Tanner Hall on Sunday might have heard steel drums and seen green shirts accompanied by an unusually high number of bald heads.

The reason for the strange sights and sounds was the St. Baldrick's Day fundraiser. Tanner has been home to the head-shaving festival for three years. Students, faculty and community members came out to have their hair cut and heads shaved as a show of solidarity with children who have been diagnosed with cancer.

"When you're a kid, which is worse: getting cancer, or being different?" said Randy Huizenga, a volunteer hair-cutter for the event.

He explained that though hair can be donated to Locks for Love if it is long enough, the event's purpose is not hair donation.

"The idea is, we want kids to know it's cool to be bald," Huizenga said.

The fundraiser also managed to raise quite a bit of money.

According to Jenny Schreiner, Tanner Hall Director, at least $5,000 had already been raised through donations online and at the event.

"We've had a great turnout," Schreiner said. "The donations keep coming - I don't know how much we'll have by the end, but every year it's getting bigger and bigger."

The St. Baldrick's Foundation was created in 1999 when three reinsurance executives decided to turn their St. Patrick's Day party into a benefit for childhood cancer. Since then, the organization has raised more than $8 million for cancer research and has had people all over the country asking their family and friends, "How much would you pay to see me shave my head?"

Men and women alike came to the event to provide answers to that question and subject themselves to the shears.

Kyla Cox, senior art major, had a personal connection to the effects of cancer and said she felt the cause was an extremely important one. She was one of at least five females to go bald Sunday.

Jonathan Wilcoxen, sophomore music education major, said he had grown his hair out for three years and was ready to see it go.

"It's good to know I did this for a good cause," Wilcoxen said, holding his freshly chopped ponytail in his hands.

Continued...

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