"Would you like to shave your head?," asks first-year Syracuse University law student Meghan McLees to a male student passing by her St. Baldrick's display table . "It'll grow back, and it's for a good cause."
The cause? Childhood cancer research.
McLees started the solo initiative to shed her curly blond locks for cancer research but quickly realized she had tremendous support from her friends and family. She exceeded her initial $500 fundraising goal within hours of starting her campaign and then enlisted her law school friends for additional support.
"I knew as soon as I met my initial goal that I could do more," McLees, a Syracuse native, says. "St. Baldrick's touched me because of its devotion to children. When I read some of the heartwarming stories and looked at the pictures at StBaldricks.org, I knew others would change their mind about shaving their heads, just like I did."
Now some of her classmates from the SU College of Law are joining her effort by shaving their heads at the St. Baldrick's event at Kitty Hoyne's Irish Pub and Restaurant in Syracuse on March 26. The team is made up of McLees, Rob Genthner, Anish Mathur, Joe Nosse, Marnie Anderson, Kevin Crowley, Peter Gioelli Jr. and Tomas Gonzalez, the director of student resources.
Shaving one's head isn't a requirement to take part in the cause, though. By sponsoring a "shavee," individuals can contribute to saving children from their number one killer: cancer.
Those interested in participating in St. Baldrick's campaign can visit McLees at the St. Baldrick's table on the 2nd floor of E.I. White Hall on Tuesdays and Thursdays this month and can come to the event on March 26.
McLees will also be donating her hair to Locks for Love, an organization that fashions hairpieces out of donated hair. The St. Baldrick's foundation has raised more than $12 million to fight childhood cancer since 1999. To date, nearly 16,000 people -- more than 1,000 of them women -- have shaved their heads at 554 St. Baldrick's celebrations.
For more information, contact McLees at mpmclees@syr.edu or register to make a donation
at http://www.stbaldricks.org or call 1-888-899-BALD. All proceeds go to the St. Baldrick's Foundation, whose primary beneficiary is CureSearch Children's Oncology Group, a four-star network of physicians, nurses and scientists that treats 90 percent of all childhood cancer patients in North America and performs cutting-edge research at more than 200 member institutions.
