Students Shed Hair on St. Baldrick’s Day

By TAYLOR CASEY
Contributing Writer

After months of careful organizing and planning, the Saint Rose Student Association put on its biggest event of the year, St. Baldrick’s Day. Each year, SA holds a fundraiser with the charity as a way of supporting research efforts in finding cures for children’s cancers. Starting the day off at 11 a.m. already having raised $10,000 as a result of months of fundraising beforehand, the SA members say that it was a successful day.
Adorned with information tables about the event, raffles, sound system, barbers, and even local news stations News 10 ABC and CBS 6, the student lounge in the Events and Athletics Center had people in and out all day witnessing the impact of the little things people can do. Called in at the last minute by SA, the team of Mark Joblonski, Rocco Sorrient and Brett Belleville from Patsy’s Barber Shop in Albany were there to help serve the cause. This was their first time doing a charity event like this, and they hope to come back in the future to help.
A total of 37 people came in to have their heads shaved for the event. It ranged from students to faculty and each had their own reason as to why they trimmed down their locks. Some came in just for the sake of supporting, and others told tales about family and friends they had lost to cancer.
“It’s been really heart-warming to see all these people come and have their heads shaved,” said Abigail Koller, who was in charge of organizing the shavees. She, along with the event coordinators Tim King and Ellen Praught, were able to keep matters running smoothly.
King and Praught, who began organizing the event in January, said that it had a successful turnout; the amount of people who helped the cause did great things for the St. Baldrick’s foundation.
“This is my first year as a director, along with Tim, and there has been much better fundraising,” said Praught. “We hope to reach our goal of $20,000 by the end of today.”
Many people helped with SA trying to achieve their goal; one of those people was Michael Levi. Levi is a professor in the music department here at The College of Saint Rose. He was the top fundraiser of the event, by raising $1,600 alone.
“I really believe in the cause and every year I try to top what I have done in the past,” said Levi. Next year he hopes to bring forth $2,000.
While many shaved their heads in support of St. Baldrick’s, one student, Jordan Oczkowski, was able to donate to Locks of Love as well. Coming into the student lounge with about 10 inches of hair, Oczkowski sat down and donated his black tresses before he became freshly shaven.
“I knew I was going to do this at the beginning of the year, and I thought it was a great thing, so I grew out my hair and shaved for my grandmother who battled cancer for five years,” Oczkowski said. Many others, like him, had loved ones whom they shaved for, and donated in order to help those who need it most.
“All that matters at this event is the shavees. They are the ones who donate and allow themselves to be shaved all in the name of cancer research,” said King. Thanks to the many people who donated, SA was able to raise a good amount of money to be donated to childhood cancer research.