Dozens get locks shorn at St. Baldrick’s fundraiser
Nine-year-old Faye Meadows took her seat at the stage with the crowd booming loudly all around her. The little girl sat still waiting for the clippers to eventually start buzzing as hair stylists braided her long, brown hair into sections.
Then, her hair was gone— shaved off as part of the St. Baldrick’s Day fund-raising for charity.
Faye was one of more than 40 green-clad and face-painted participants that shaved their heads on the patio of the Goose’s Acre Bistro and Irish Pub on Sunday afternoon, March 11, to round out a season of fund-raising for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. St. Baldrick’s is a non-profit organization that, to date, has collected and donated more than $230 million in grants for children’s cancer research. Sunday’s event in The Woodlands was one of at least four across the greater Houston region.
“Every two minutes a child is diagnosed with cancer,” organizer Johnny Hennigan told the crowd before the first round of shaving. “One out of those five will not survive.”
The Woodlands St. Baldrick’s Day event has raised more than $408,500 since its inception in 2007, averaging about $38,000 to $40,000 each year. Hennigan, who earned the nickname “Topless Johnny” for his own head-shaving efforts, stepped down from organizing the event in The Woodlands in 2013, but helped this year and has been heavily involved for more than 10 years.
Hennigan, who owns the Woodlands-based bt Marketing, said he was inspired to help with the charity because of the impact cancer has had on his family. Hennigan’s brother died from cancer—the same kind of cancer U.S. Sen. John McCain has been diagnosed with—and his daughter, Kelly, was diagnosed with
cancer at 12 years old.
Goose’s Acre owner Brian Young approached Hennigan a little more than a decade ago and asked him to start the event, where green beer flows all around and cash is tossed toward the stage as the master of ceremonies calls for more donations while donors get their heads cleaned of hair.
“When you own an establishment, you want to give back,” Young said. “We have a good venue for it and it helps us be a part of the community.”
Early on in the event Sunday, Hennigan declared Faye, who is a student Alief Montessori Community School, as his “favorite person.”
With the help of a Facebook video shared by her mother, Tiffany Clark, and through sheer determination, Faye raised more than $1,000 to be donated to the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.
“I shaved my head for all the kids that have cancer,” Faye said.
Clark shaved her own head at the event in 2013, inspiring Faye to follow in her mother’s steps as soon as her hair was long enough.
For a nine-year-old girl, shaving her head could be seen as scary or something that could change her in the eyes of her friends, Clark said, but Faye has been brave throughout the process, even encouraging her supportive classmates to join her.
“I would tell them that there’s nothing to be afraid of,” Faye said.
Although the scene Sunday was rowdy, this year was nowhere near to the biggest and loudest St. Baldrick’s event at the Goose Acre, Hennigan reported.
A few years ago—Hennigan said he can’t quite remember what year it was— a total of 91 people shaved their heads, including 19 children and 22 women.
“The rest were drunks that wanted to give me their money,” Hennigan said.
The event raised $15,285, Hennigan said on March 12.