Are you BOLD enough to go BALD?

Hello faithful readers! It's Robin here (Esther's aunt). I am guest posting today to let you know about a very exciting event coming up.

Do you remember, waaaayyy back in January when Sam posted about a fundraising foundation called St. Baldrick's? You can re-read her post by clicking here. As a reminder, here is a little bit of what Sam wrote about it:

"As I've learned about childhood cancer I was very surprised to learn how little awareness and funding is actually out there. For example, in the last 20 years, only two new drugs have been approved by the FDA to treat children with cancer. Pharmaceutical companies don't like to fund the research because there's not a lot of profit in drugs for a small population. Research can be difficult because there aren't large sample sizes. The biggest problem is that in both the public and private sectors, pediatric oncology is VERY, VERY poorly funded and the recent budget cuts have the potential to stop research that is saving lives. Esther is currently receiving radiation. The radiation is penetrating right through her reproductive system and will kill her ovaries. Esther will never have biological children. She also has a significant hearing loss. Could research be done to help these kids both survive the number one disease killer of children AND preserve their bodies? 

This research will not happen until there is more awareness of pediatric cancer. Before this I had no idea the ribbon for childhood cancer is gold and September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month. Here's a few fun ways to support kids and raise awareness of childhood cancer."

"St. Baldrick's is a GREAT support of research for kids with cancer. They support research for treatment and also supportive care for how to help some of those side effects. They fill in the HORRIBLE funding gap for childhood cancer research. Research that is desperately needed. This statement pretty much sums it up...

"But even for kids who survive, the battle is not over. Because of the treatments they had as kids, by the time they’re in their 30s or 40s, more than 73% of survivors will have a chronic health problem and 42% will have severe or life-threatening conditions." ~St. Baldrick's "About Childhood Cancer"

One of the ways they provide that money is a Shave-A-Thon! "

So what is this post about, you ask? Well, we are hosting a Shave-A-Thon!

Save the date for: 

Sunday, September 22nd at 2pm

Summitview Community Church Gym

Ft. Collins, CO

I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am about this event. And, I hope it makes you excited as well. First of all, we need to recruit some shavee's.

When Esther lost her hair, my then 3 year old, Amelia said this to me many times:




So, our family (my husband, Casey, myself, my 6 year old Delaney, my 4 year old Amelia and my 2 year old Remi) are planning to be bold enough to be bald. We will be shaving our heads in honor of Esther to raise funds for St. Baldrick's.

With that, let me ask you a question. Are you bold enough to go bald too?!? We need more shavee's to raise more money! Think about it!

Okay, so you are thinking to yourself, I want to help, but there is just no way I can shave my head. Well, that's ok! There are soooo many ways you can help out! These are some of the area's that we need volunteers to fill the roles of:

These roles are required to fill:

• Lead Treasure and Secondary Treasurer(Ensure donation handling procedures are followed, must take background check)
• Registrar(organizes registration process and event check in)
• Barber (position filled already, yippee!)

These roles are optional, but oh so helpful:

• Stage Manager:(guides the pre-shave ceremony and assists emcee, shavees and barbers)
• Emcee:(educates and entertains the crowd throughout the event)
• Photographer:(photographs event activities and edits pictures after event)
• Publicity Liaison:(manages media relations before, during, and after event)
• Childhood Cancer and Family Liaison:(coordinates with families of chidren with cancer before and at the event)
• Event Ambassador at Large:(provide general assistance to ensure a pleasant event enviornment)
• Raffle Coordinator:(prepares cotests, sells tickets, solicits prize donations and award prizes)
• T-Shirt Coordinator:(developes a plan for t-shirt distribution during the event)
• Canvassers:(help promote event)
• Greeters:(greet shavees and guests at entrance)
• Volunteer Assistant :(help direct volunteers at event)
• Set-up and Clean-up Crew:(help set up and tear down event)
• Walk-in shavee manager(coordinates with the registrar to manage walk-in shavees)
• Floater: (assists the heads of each "department")

That is a lot of people needed to help out to make this a great event! I know that is a ton of information to take in, so if you see one of the volunteer positions and think, "Yes! I would be perfect at that!" or if you see all of the volunteer positions and think, "I'd love to help, but I am not sure where I could serve best." or if you think, "I am soooo gonna shave my hair off!" Then, you can email me at rfegger@gmail.com and put "Baldricks" in the subject line. Certain roles require more than one volunteer depending on the size of our event.

There are a few volunteer positions that HAVE to be filled before the event can go live via a webpage where you can see pertinent information, begin raising funds if you are going to shave your head, etc. I hope to send this website live by the end of this week! And I hope to hear from you soon too!