Alpha Delta Phi member Tom Irwin is used to shaving his head for charity, having done it a total of three times.
“The first time I did it for my cousin, and I kind of fell off in high school,” Irwin said. “But I heard they were doing it here, and I jumped right on board.”
Irwin’s younger cousin had lung cancer as a child – one out of 10,400 children in the United States that are diagnosed with cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.
So in an effort to lower that number and find a cure for childhood cancer, Irwin and other members of Alpha Delta Phi and the University of Massachusetts Police Department teamed up with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a charity that raises money by shaving people’s heads to fight cancer in children. On Sunday, the UMass Police and the fraternity held their fourth annual event to support the charity at Rafters Sports Bar and Restaurant in Amherst.
By the end of the day, they had raised almost $50,000.
“You can’t explain to a 5-year-old why they don’t have hair,” said Sgt. Matt Malo of the UMass Police, the founder of the UMass branch of the charity. He added that by shaving their heads, people are standing in solidarity with the children who have to go through chemotherapy.
Malo has been involved with St. Baldrick’s for eight years and has been hosting the event at Rafters for four years. He said that he does not have any children with cancer, but he wants to be able to help those with kids who have cancer fight the disease and someday find a cure.
Five barbers from Matt’s Barber Shop in downtown Amherst volunteered their time to shave close to 200 people’s heads at Sunday’s event. College students, police officers, firefighters, parents and children were among those who came to get their hair trimmed.
“I’ve never seen such a large collection of people coming together in such a positive atmosphere,” said Matt Haskins, the owner of Matt’s Barber Shop. Haskins has been volunteering at the event for the past four years.
“I love this event. … To be involved in this is such a great honor,” he said.
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation began in 1999 when a group of insurance executives decided that they wanted to raise money for something by shaving their heads, according to Malo. They decided that the money would be used toward finding a cure for childhood cancer, and at their first event, they raised $17,000. Each year, the charity has grown larger and larger, and it currently is a worldwide organization
helping to fight childhood cancer around the globe.
Anthony Broding, president of Alpha Delta Phi, has participated in the annual event for the past three years. He said that he doesn’t have any relatives who suffer from cancer, but he knows that some of the other fraternity members do. He added that to him, it’s both a good cause and a tradition to come out and get his head shaved with his fraternity brothers. Alpha Delta Phi raised over $2,000 in donations for the event and also helped to set up the tents that housed the makeshift barbershop.
Rafters manager Yvette Rowan-Stern said that the event is significant to her because she has a personal history with cancer and has had employees who have also suffered from cancer.
“It brings the community together,” she said. “People get the sense that they need to help out.”
Patrick Hoff can be reached at [email protected].
