DHS Teachers Promote the St. Baldrick's Foundation
NEIRAD enilno edition
Math teacher Patrick Dooley gets a free haircut every March. His look has caught on. Last month, several of Dooley’s colleagues, and even a student copied Mr. Dooley’s shaved style. But it isn’t fashion or saving a few bucks that sparked this trend. These teachers and student, let students shave their heads in a fundraising effort for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.
Every 3 ½ minutes, a family will have to hear the life-changing news that their child has cancer. Since its founding in 1999, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation has developed into the largest volunteer-based fundraising program for childhood cancer.
Over these nine years, events have occurred in 18 countries and 48 US states. These great efforts have shaved 72,000 heads, and helped the foundation to raise over $50 million. You may remember the St. Baldrick’s Foundation Event at DHS last year, when students lent a hand in shaving portions of Mr. Dooley’s head. “It’s a fun thing for students to participate in, and their support has been overwhelming,” Dooley said.
A few years ago, Mr. Patrick Dooley saw the event being promoted in a restaurant menu, and introduced the event at DHS. The first year, Dooley estimated to raise $500, but due to the overwhelming support of the student body, he was able to raise almost $3000. It is now three years later, and Mr. Dooley’s goal for the 2009 was $3000. This year especially, the donations from the students kept flooding in, and the final count was around $5500.
The 2009 event included more teachers, and more advertising. Mr. George Marrash and Mr. Steven Brooks participated along with Mr. Steven Coppock and Mrs. Taylor’s husband, Mr. Mike LaBelle. Mr. Brooks served as the PR coordinator, and reached out further than the DHS community, by placing ads in the local newspapers.
However, these efforts did not help in the overall fundraising. Even without the support of the town, the students showed their compassion and enthusiasm for this worthy cause. “I think the close relationships that the teachers hold with their students drive them to donate,” Mr. Dooley said.
A great development that hopefully will be incorporated into next year’s event is student participants. Sophomore, Alex Bruno volunteered to shave his head this year to help out the great cause, and perhaps his choice will inspire more students to shave off their hair in support for the 2010 event. “During lunch a few students came up to me asking about shaving their heads, so hopefully next year there will be more student participants,” Mr. Brooks said.
Alex’s mom was on the board of the Lance Armstrong Foundation in the early 2000’s, so he was frequently involved with cancer patients. Alex saw the St. Baldrick’s event at DHS as the perfect way to lend his support. “Cancer has been a huge part in my life so I figured this would be an easy way to give back,” Alex said. The brave and eager student has already recruited for next year’s event, “I already had one of my friends approach me saying he wanted to do it. Imagine if we had 10 more kids or even 30 more! I don’t think people realize how much of an impact they can have by just shaving their head.”
After the money is raised here at DHS, it goes directly into funding research and grants. St. Baldrick’s also have their own doctors, or St. Baldrick’s Scholars, who are funded by the foundation to become the next great childhood cancer researchers.
The money that has been raised by DHS, has helped many cancer-stricken children, and will continue to fund the great search for a cancer cure.
If you missed the opportunity to donate at school, you still have the chance! If you would like to make a donation for this heartwarming cause, you can see Mr. Dooley or Mr. Brooks in the math office, or go to www.stbaldricks.org and search for the event at DHS.
