Hair dropped to the floor as quickly as pints were filled during the St. Baldrick’s event at Kitty Hoynes Irish Pub on Sunday. Voices strained to be louder than the razors shaving hundreds of heads for childhood cancer. But there wasn’t a sound when cancer survivors, family members and allies took the stage to testify about the cause.

Kitty Hoynes has been the No.1 fundraiser for St. Baldrick’s for the last two years, earning $541,481 in 2017 and $4.6 million since its first event 14 years ago, not including this past Sunday, said Chow Downey, head coordinator and host of the event.

Tim Kenny, an original founder of St. Baldrick’s, said that the idea for the organization came about in the old-fashioned Irish way: over a couple of drinks in a pub in 1999. Kenny, alongside a group of 17 men, set out to raise $1,000 a head for childhood cancer research and ended up raising $104,000.

Eighteen years later, the organization is in every state in the union and 28 countries worldwide, and has raised $325 million dollars, Kenny said.

“The people who survived and those who don’t, we keep them in our minds and pray for them every day,” Kenny said in his testimony.

At just four days old, local resident Meghan Weeks and her parents were told she had ganglioglioma — a tumor that would be benign in adults, but at Meghan’s age was cancerous. At seven days old, Weeks started chemotherapy. She was pronounced cancer-free when she was a year old.

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Weeks testified in an open letter to cancer, and said she doesn’t take good days for granted because the bad days outnumber the good. Even though she was one of the 80 percent of children who survived childhood cancer, her life is still anything but normal with five doctor appointments per week. Sunday was her 24th birthday.

Emma Stuart, 18, and her mother Kristin, 48, sat together and held hands as razors shaved their heads in honor of their friend Weeks and other loved ones who have dealt with childhood cancer. Each woman tied her hair in four ponytails — to ensure maximum length —and planned to donate their locks for wigs.

For 11 years, Jason Cornish, 40, has participated in the event. He got involved when his wife was pregnant with their first child.

“I’m glad to do it, pay it forward and help out any way I can,” he said. “Even if a little bit of money I helped raise can go toward finding a cure, then it was worth it.”

When Michele Suarez, 49, stood up from the chair with a bald head, her friends shouted “you’re beautiful!” Six years ago she was dared to shave her head for St. Baldrick’s and has continued to do so ever since. She raised $700 this year.

“I can’t imagine, as a parent, having to go through a kid being sick. I’m shaving my hair in solidarity for kids,” Suarez said.

Barbers, hairdressers and bartenders volunteered their time to help run the event.
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Each employee and hairdresser volunteered their time on Sunday for the cause. A range of people, including the Miss New York International 2017 winner, were shaving heads.

One of the youngest getting a shaved head was Hunter Dawley, 22 months old, for the second year in a row. His first-ever haircut was during the event last year.

Thirteen-year-old Joshua Smith held up a photo of a young boy that his aunt babysat for while his head was being shaved for the eighth time. The boy in the photo died of childhood cancer.

“I want to stand with every kid with cancer — no one deserves this, and we’re here for them,” Smith said.

Bailey Teachman, 22, shed a tear standing up from her seat after having her head shaved for the first time.

“Women shouldn’t feel they have beauty standards they need to meet with their hair,” she said. “It’s a sign of strength to let go of your hair, and I have the ability to do anything a man can do.”

She added, “Cancer doesn’t discriminate against gender.”

For the third time, Madeleine Barstow, 12, shaved her head on Sunday, raising $2,000.

“It doesn’t matter what you look like, it just matters what’s on the inside,” Barstow said.

Scott Gleason, right, and Crhistine Gonzalaez get their heads shaved for the fifth and first time respectively.
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St. Baldrick’s is the second largest contributor to childhood cancer research behind the United States government, but Tim Kenny said that isn’t enough.

“That shouldn’t be the case, the government should be way more ahead of us,” he said.

The day’s largest donor, raising over $28,000, participated in the event for the first time this year. Mike Ziemann, 58, is the bar manager at Swallows Tavern in Syracuse.

“Let’s hope we find a cure this year so we never have to do this again,” he said.

Dr. Melanie Comito is the division chief of hematology and oncology at Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital and has seen the impact St. Baldrick’s donations have. Thanks to the organization, Comito has been able to keep 60 different studies open full time, including an infant brain tumor study.

“We have to keep doing these things so that every child can go off and you’d never know they were ever treated and looks like every other child,” Comito said.

A total of 555 people shaved their heads on Sunday. The Kitty Hoynes St. Baldrick’s fundraiser set a goal of $500,000, but they expect to exceed that.

Said Downey: “We made a commitment 14 years ago, and we will keep going until there is no more childhood cancer in this world.”

Published on March 26, 2018 at 12:56 am

Contact Myelle: malansat@syr.edu