SEBASTIAN — Bald is beautiful – and there was no shortage of beautiful bald heads this weekend, as more than 100 people stepped up to the stage at Captain Hiram’s to have their heads shaved at the third annual St. Baldrick’s Signature Head Shaving fundraiser to raise money for pediatric cancer research.
Springtime sunshine and warm weather made the idea of a shaved head more attractive, and the enthusiasm was so contagious that several people signed up on the spot to shear their locks.
The mark of a successful fundraiser is meeting the money-making goal early. Event co-chair Frank “Cookie” Mannino had been checking the statistics each day, and by Saturday morning was thrilled to discover that $100,000 had been raised even before the first head had been shorn. At the end of the day, nearly $15,000 more had been raised, because who can say no to children?
The National Institutes of Health’s annual budget dedicates only 4 percent of their funds to pediatric cancers. That’s where the St. Baldrick’s Foundation comes in. Founded in 1999 by three New Yorkers, their goal was to spend as little as possible to raise each dollar, and make sure that the money would fund the best research possible toward a cure for pediatric cancers.
The national organization has raised more than $100 million dollars since its inception.
Saturday’s festivities began with sirens blaring as a parade of fire trucks, an ambulance, and state troopers escorted several children who have been in treatment for various cancers to the Sand Bar at Captain Hiram’s where they were greeted by bagpipers and the fun began.
A crowd of roughly 500 cheering friends and family members came out in support of the children and the daring grownups who were losing their locks.
Stylists stood onstage, pumping up the audience and waiting to shave the brave.
Co-chair Missy Elward, a Sebastian hair stylist, had recruited several others to shave in shifts. Each added their own creative twists to the shaving process, dancing to the pounding rhythm of the music and shaping the hair into crazy sculptures before shaving it all off.
“It’s all for the kids,” said Steve Greer, an Indian River County firefighter who was getting shaved for the second year in a row. He had also dyed his wheat-colored hair green to raise additional money. “My daughter had a benign tumor that needed to be treated with chemotherapy. I have an idea of what these parents must feel.”
Orchid Island resident Neil McCurry had his thick head of hair shaved, but still had plenty left on his face. A cancer survivor himself, recuperating from melanoma last year at this time, he was grateful to be standing in the sunshine.
“When you get a cancer diagnosis, it is a lonely feeling,” said McCurry. “I am lucky. I have lived a long life and I would switch places with any of these kids in a minute, because cancer is a tough way to start your life.”
The shaving spree went on all day, along with raffles and other diversions to keep the dollars flowing. Team after team took its place on the stage, including four female Sebastian Lions Club members, Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers, and Indian River County firefighters.