More than 900 volunteers have raised nearly $120,000 over the past six years in Bowling Green’s fight against childhood cancer.
This year, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation Shave-A-Thon hopes to add $25,000 to their total with the help of volunteers and shavees from the University and the community. Donations go to childhood cancer research, fundraising efforts and St. Baldrick’s administration.
St. Baldrick’s mission is to address the need for funds that go directly to research of cancers affecting children. Childhood cancer research receives less than four percent of the National Cancer Institute’s budget, yet children worldwide are diagnosed with cancer every two minutes, according to St. Baldrick’s website.
“When I started working as a volunteer and event organizer in 2012, it was every 3 minutes and 30 seconds that a child was diagnosed with cancer. Cancer is winning, and we cannot let that happen,” Jenn Grulke, an organizer for the Shave-A-Thon, said.
Through her six years of volunteering, Grulke has witnessed the Bowling Green community unite against cancer despite the statistics.
“Students and the community really come together to help try and turn the tide for children with cancer,” she said.
Volunteer Event Organizer and third-year education major Adrienne Sarbaugh’s reason for involvement in the Shave-A-Thon goes beyond the numbers. As a member of the McDonald Hall residence staff, an experience that was much closer to home inspired her to join the local St. Baldrick’s leadership last year.
“One of my residents had cancer, and she came and would tell me about her experience. She was really my driving force, and she’s mainly my driving force this year, too,” Sarbaugh said.
This year, Sarbaugh plans to take a step beyond organizing and volunteering by shaving her head if the event meets its $25,000 goal to show solidarity with cancer patients.
Solidarity is also the goal of the University Police Department, which has raised the most money of any fundraising teams so far. The department’s team captain, Officer Clay Myers, said the event is for a good cause and allows the department to meet students and members of the community.
“It’s definitely a community-building event. I’d just like to see anybody who can stop out,” he said.
Some officers and dispatchers will be volunteering or working on-duty at the Shave-A-Thon while others registered to shave their heads in support of children who lose their hair during treatment. Shavees include Deputy Chief John Betori and dispatcher Megan Kuhlman, who lead the team’s fundraising efforts with a combined total of $1,382.
“That’s obviously something that kind of hits home for everybody… so we want to do the best job we can and raise as much as we can for (St. Baldrick’s),” Myers said.
Whether participants donate money, hair or time, their solidarity with young people suffering from cancer is evident.
Bowling Green’s own Ambrosia Salon provides barbers for the shavings. The support of the salon and other Bowling Green, Perrysburg and Toledo organizations allow the event to contribute to change each year, Grulke said.
“Their commitment to this work and the passion of the BGSU students can help change these statistics where one day, we will no longer have to shave to raise money. Until then, we brave the shave.”
