Here’s the buzz: During St. Baldrick’s Day, students look to raise $45,000 for pediatric cancer research

Kirsten Smith’s hairdresser—who also is her sister—had to warm up to the notion that Smith wanted to shave her head as part of Rowan University’s St. Baldrick's Day event to benefit pediatric cancer research.

But Smith says her grandmother, a breast cancer survivor who herself lost her hair during treatment, is proud that her granddaughter will be among 66 shavees—seven of them female—as Rowan students seek to raise $45,000 for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation on Tuesday, March 24, at 7 p.m. in the Pit of the Chamberlain Student Center on the Glassboro campus.

All of the shavees who reach their fundraising goals will publicly shave their heads in the annual event, which draws throngs of students and Rowan community members to the Pit. Smith is the leading fundraiser thus far with $1,260 raised. She already has surpassed her goal.

Altogether, Rowan’s Student University Programmers, which organizes St. Baldrick’s Day, has set a $45,000 goal for the evening--$20,000 more than last year’s original goal of $25,000. But that figure came crashing down last year just as quickly as participants’ hair cascaded to the ground. By night’s end, students had raised a whopping $39,000.

Since 2011, Rowan students have gone bald to raise $90,500 for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation—a phenomenal amount.

'Who doesn't want to see a girl get her head shaved?'

“At first, my sister wasn’t too happy I was shaving the hair she’s worked so hard on, but she has since come around,” laughs Smith, a senior health and physical education major from Southampton, who is nervous and exited at the prospect of seeing her chestnut brown, shoulder-length hair fall to the ground.  “Now, she’s proud I’m doing this for others.

“My grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer about three years ago, just as I was starting college,” continues Smith, who works as program development student coordinator with Rowan After Hours, which is presented by the Office of Student Activities.

“I watched my grandmother struggle. Seeing how down she was during the whole process really affected me. As a future teacher, I care a lot about children. I thought, as a female with long hair, if I could show people that it’s no big deal to be bald, I could help a lot of people. I knew I could easily get donations. Who doesn’t want to see a girl get her head shaved?”

As they have done every year since the event’s inception, six volunteer barbers from Glassboro’s Hair 2 There will do the shaving. The event will include 11 rounds of shaving. The first round is slated to begin at 7:20 p.m. and the evening will finish with three rounds of female shavees, beginning at approximately 9 p.m.

Personal connections to cancer

While all shavees have a deep commitment to the cause--and many have been personally affected by cancer--the female shavees are especially “hardcore” in their devotion to St. Baldrick’s Day, says Rowan junior management and entrepreneurship major Carly Samuels, SUP’s director of charitable events.

“When we have a shavee meeting, the girls are always in the front row,” says Samuels. “For each shavee, there’s usually meaning behind their participation. Nobody does it for a free haircut.”

Now in her second year organizing St. Baldrick’s Day, Samuels says her favorite part of the event is seeing all sectors of the University community come together. She also loves that Rowan alumna Lauren Thompson comes back each year to serve as the event’s emcee.

Thompson, who earned her bachelor’s degree in 2011 and her master’s in 2013, shaved her head at Rowan’s first St. Baldrick’s Day in 2011. She now works in student programming at SUNY-Genesco.

“I absolutely love when Lauren comes back because she was there from the beginning,” says Samuels, noting that 35 student volunteers help organize St. Baldrick’s Day. “This event is the reason I got involved with SUP. It’s so unique. We’ve already raised more then $17,000, but we have a long way to go. I think we’re going to get really, really close to our goal.”

Community members are invited to attend St. Baldrick’s Day and to support the event, Samuels notes.

Additionally, Gloucester County’s Order Up, an app to order takeout food, is partnering with Rowan’s SUP to support St. Baldrick’s Day. Through the end of the month, $1 for every order placed will support the students’ efforts, according to Samuels.