Tanner Hall Hosts St. Baldrick's Head Shaving for Childhood Cancer Research March 1
February 24, 2009


A shavee in the 2005 Tanner Hall St. Baldrick's fund-raiser.
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MACOMB, IL - - More than 30 Western Illinois University students and residence hall staff, several groups, plus a faculty member and a University police officer have signed up to have their heads shaved in the annual Tanner Hall St. Baldrick's fund-raising event for childhood cancer research and awareness.
The shavers and shavees meet razor to head from 12-6 p.m. Sunday, March 1 in the Tanner Hall Circle. Individuals interested in participating can register online at www.stbaldricks.org (under Find an Event, Find One Near You, type 61455 in the zip code box to get to Tanner Hall/WIU) or they can register at the event, according to Laura Rychalsky, Tanner Hall director. Donations can also be made online or at the event.
The goal for the one-day event is $10,000; and, with pledges posted to the St. Baldrick's web site, Tanner Hall is more than one-fifth of the way to their goal, Rychalsky added.
Shaving heads may seem an unusual fund-raiser, but it is undertaken in solidarity with children with cancer, who often lose their hair during treatment. Through this St. Baldrick's event, all of Western's participants are showing concern for others and putting into action one of the University's four principal values, social responsibility.
Junior music therapy student Jonathan Wilcoxen (Chillicothe, IL) is one of at least 15 repeat participants in the fundraiser. He said: "I have decided to be involved with St. Baldrick's for the second time. Instead of shaving just my head, I will also be shaving my beard, which is currently between two-to-three inches long. The money goes to such a good and needed cause. Please donate any monetary amount; it will go to support cancer research for children."
"I'm a big fan of Spiderman and like the great superhero's statement: "With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility," wrote junior Brad Snyder (Bensonville, IL), a law enforcement and justice administration major and a repeat shavee, on his St. Baldrick's shavee web page. "I feel that we all have the power to help make a child's life better. With that power I feel that we all have the responsibility to help where and when we can."
Biology Associate Professor Susan Meiers and Police Cpl. Ted Anderson are among the individual fund-raisers trying to help Tanner Hall/WIU reach the $10,000 goal for St. Baldrick's.
"I'm doing this to help awareness of funding for children's cancer cures," said Meiers, who will go with a 'very short trim.' "My cousin's son, Kolby, had childhood leukemia, and research saved his life. He's still in remission."
Teams participating include Western's Steel Band Shavers, Sigma Chi, Theta Xi and TBD.
St. Baldrick's began in 2000 with a group of New York executives who wanted to add a new meaning to St. Patrick's Day celebrations by recruiting volunteers to have their heads shaved in public in return for financial support to benefit childhood cancer research, according to the web site.
For more information, contact Rychalsky at (309) 298-3460.
Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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