Shave for the Brave reinvents itself in the wake of COVID-19
From a 79-year old woman in Corner Brook, to an eight-year-old in St. John’s, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are becoming solo shavers
CORNER BROOK — Lorraine O’quinn has always taken great pride in her hair and as she’s gotten older it’s come to mean so much more to her.
With full-bodied hair that looks nice at any length, she’s been told she looks like her mother, Ernestine Morrey, who died eight years ago at the age of 100.
When her hair started going grey in her late 40s, Lorraine began dying it, first saying she’d let the grey come in when she turned 50. But that didn’t happen.
“I’d always make an excuse, I’d wait until I was 60. So, I didn’t let my hair go white till I was 70,” the Corner Brook woman said with a laugh.
That was nine years ago and recently she did something a little different with her hair — she shaved it off for Shave for the Brave.
Shave for the Brave is a major fundraiser for the St. John’s-based Young Adults Cancer Canada (YACC).
COVID-19 has meant the organization can’t hold its annual shaves at schools, offices, rinks and community spaces across the country. Instead, it’s been reinvented as the Solo Shave Squad, where solo shavers, like Lorraine, can do their shaves from the comfort of their own quarantine.
YACC has set May 2 for the solo shave, but some like Lorraine have done theirs early. Solo shavers can share their shaves through their social networks with photos and videos and all public posts will be shared through the Shave for the Brave channels that day, resulting in the first-ever virtual shave.
“It was something always in the back of mind,” said Lorraine of her decision to participate.
Every time she’d see coverage of an event on television she’d think ‘I’d love to be there. I’d like to do that.’
She has grandsons in St. John’s who are in minor hockey who have done the Shave for the Brave. And like most everyone, her family has been touched by cancer. Two of her brothers, Gerald and her twin Jim, died of cancer and her mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer prior to her death. So, a little while ago Lorraine asked her ago her daughter, Judy O’quinn, to do the job for her.
Neither Judy nor her brother Terry O’quinn were surprised their mother would do this.
“She was a really good sport,” said Judy. “As soon as
I turned (the trimmers) on I made one cut near the front and it was really, really short.”
With that, Judy said she had to keep going.
“It happened so quick she just went right back, and it was done before I knew it,” said Lorraine.
Terry said the shave was a way for his mom to connect with her grandsons and
she has her hair bagged up to show them.
She’s now waiting on a sponsor sheet to come from Shave for the Brave and with a lot of family and friends around figures she’ll have no trouble filling it out.
“Get a hundred dollars anyway.”
EIGHT-YEAR-OLD PREPPED FOR FOURTH SHAVE
Across the province in St. John’s eight-year-old Sam Peddle is getting set to do his fourth Shave for the Brave.
His first shave happened when he was one. His mom Vanessa Peddle works at the Delta and organized a shave event there after returning from maternity leave. Her hair was long enough to be cut first so she could donate it to be made into a wig and then shaved. Four years later she did the same thing.
Since then Sam has continued to participate in shave events at his school.
“It’s just something he wants to do,” said Vanessa.
“I want to help young adults survive cancer,” chimes in Sam from the background.
When asked if they have a personal reason for doing the shaves, Vanessa replies: “Who doesn’t have a family connection?”