On March 18, Chardon High School’s National Honors Society will host a school fundraiser for St. Baldrick’s Foundation.

The St. Baldrick’s Foundation is a charity committed to funding children’s cancer research. The only organization that funds more childhood cancer research is the U.S. government. The foundation holds head-shaving events, where volunteers shave their heads to stand in solidarity with children fighting cancer. The volunteers collect donations that support life-saving cancer research. The foundation began as a competition between three friends on March 17, 2000 at Jim Brady’s Bar and Restaurant in New York City. Since then it has developed into the world’s biggest volunteer-driven foundation benefiting childhood cancer research. The foundation has raised 136 million dollars over the past twelve years, 33 million of it being in 2012 alone. The foundation’s name is a mixture of the words “bald” and “St. Patrick’s” because the first event was held on St. Patrick’s Day.

CHS assistant principle Mr. Sedlak first brought the fundraiser to CHS last year. He commented, “This will be the third year I’ve done St. Baldrick’s. My cousin’s child, Shane Haddad, was diagnosed in January 2010 with multiple brain tumors (pilo mixoid astrocytoma). He left the hospital on his fourth birthday after brain surgery and a three week stay.  He’s seven now.” Last year, a few Chardon High School staff members and students participated in St. Baldrick’s, but for this year a full scale fundraising event was planned by NHS. Mr. Sedlak commented, “It was supposed to be last year and after everything that happened we were going to postpone it, but it got too close to prom and graduation.”  CHS senior and NHS vice-president Will Porter is one of the main coordinators of the school event. He describes the plan for the event saying “The ‘shavees’ heads will be shaved in front of the whole school during an afternoon assembly by volunteer hair dressers from a local salon. Each volunteer has set a personal sum of money that they want to raise, but our goal is to collect $4000. All proceeds will go to funding children’s cancer research.” Female students who do not want to shave their heads will also be given an opportunity to help the cause. NHS officer and CHS senior Jessi Mysyk said, “Girls expressed their interest in contributing, so we contacted locks of love and expressions hair salon who has agreed to cut hair for free. Girls must have ten inches of hair in a pony tail to participate. Any monetary donations girls receive will still go to St. Baldricks.” Mr. Sedlak said “GTV will be here to broadcast the event.” The school is split up into five teams, one for the staff, and four more for each class. There are currently 63 ‘shavees’ signed up, and more are welcome. Donations can be made by going to directly to this webpage: http://www.stbaldricks.org/events/mypage/9772/2013 and clicking the big donate button. One can sign up for the event using the same process. Over ninety percent of the school’s goal has already been reached.