I never knew my oldest sister, Karen. She was born in 1957 and cancer took her in 1959 at the age of 26 months. She was my parents' first child and she died before I was even born, but the mere knowledge of her existence has always impacted me (and even more so now that I have three children of my own). What my parents went through I cannot begin to fathom, and my heart goes out to anyone having to deal with a child with cancer (how trivial things like making all the sports teams, how popular one is at school and always getting straight A's must seem)...... BUT I can try and make a real difference! Though I've had lots of "non-standard" hairstyles in my life (rat-tails, perms and highlights), last year I added another one by shaving my head (although I'm not sure that's really a HAIRstyle ;^) as part of the St. Baldrick's Foundation annual event. ("The mission of the St. Baldrick's Foundation is to raise awareness and funds to cure kids' cancer by supporting cancer research and fellowships."). The reasons I did it - and will do it again for as long as the follicles are producing - are: 1) to show support of all those courageous kids who undergo treatment for cancer everyday and lose their hair in the process, 2) to play a tangible role in the effort to raise money for the cause, providing hope to the families that there are better treatments every day and one day there will be a cure, 3) to recognize what my parents went - and continue to go - through, having lost a child to cancer, and 4) to remind all the people in my life, whether I see them every day or only once every couple of years, how blessed we are to have children in our lives (or how blessed someone was to have had us as their child), how precious all our lives are, and how we should choose joy and celebrate life each and every day. Despite my parents rarely talking about Karen (as their first child I'm sure she brought them both the most joy of their lives and the most devastating thing a parent should never have to deal with), there was a constant reminder of her in their bedroom: a picture of her from healthier times and a poem titled "Understanding." (See Karen's web page for the complete poem; it's rather moving.) Thanks to the efforts of St. Baldrick's, a ton of other organizations, and untold numbers of AWESOME people, great progress has been made and 50 years after Karen's death less and less parents are having to find some semblance of solace in the closing line of the poem --- "We'll brave the bitter grief that comes and try to understand." Please consider making a donation to this effort and helping support those dealing with children's cancer. Any amount is sincerely appreciated and will help achieve the stretch goal. We will strive to be significant and we will succeed!! My deepest thanks for your support. -Bill P.S. Here's the note I sent out last year about the event and my experience. I think you'll see why I'm so jazzed/passionate about this! +++++++++++++++++++++++++ First of all, I can't completely express my incredible thanks to everyone who so readily stepped up to show support of kids going through cancer! I'm a firm believer that all people are good and generous, but I also recognize that there a lot of good causes out there many of us are already involved in. So I was completely blown away by the amazing response I got from friends, family, co-workers, and even strangers when I jumped into this thing two weeks ago. Some specific things you might find interesting: DONATIONS--- What can I say? Over $10,000 will have come in once all the checks are counted! In just a two-week period! This is amazing, as it all came from family I've known all my life (duh!), friends I haven't seen in 15 years, co-workers I see every day, and strangers I just met last week. No big corporate sponsors, just a whole lot of GREAT people. All this because I wanted to save $20 on a hair cut..... ;^) WORDS--- I was/am very appreciative of all the good words of encouragement and inspiration I heard. I knew it was a good thing to do and was glad to know others thought so too. MAIL--- I was pleasantly surprised at how many email addresses still worked for folks way in my past.... FLAMES--- I was equally thankful to not receive a SINGLE flame for my pestering of people. SUGGESTIONS--- I received a lot of "be careful," "use sunscreen," and "wear a cap" messages. This will help me deal with both deal with the cold in Calgary this week and in Florida in two weeks! STORIES--- This was perhaps the biggest surprise and bonus to me. A good number of you sent me stories - or at least a couple sentences - of how you, or someone in your family, or a friend have been or is personally and directly affected by cancer. I was touched by all of them. Next, let me tell you a bit about the event itself. The event went from 1-5 PM on a Saturday, with some 40 people having their heads shaved. (FWIW, Cam Ward, the Carolina Hurricanes hockey goalie had his head shaved there Friday night.) Collectively over $40,000 was raised. I gotta admit, the event was fun - it's a pub, after all. ;^) But it was also a very inspiring thing to be a part of; here are some reasons why: TEAM CONNOR--- This was a mom, dad and friends team who were there for their son Connor who is battling cancer. They all shaved their heads (yep, mom too) and were SO thrilled and grateful to all of us who were there participating, having us meet their son and really put a face with what we were doing. CLOSE TO HOME--- There was a poster showing the pictures of four children in the triangle who had lost their battle with cancer. One of the people checking in the shavees had a button with one of the same pictures. When I inquired if she was somehow associated with the girl, she replied she was the girl's mother and the girl had died a year ago when she was 12 years old.... sobering..... TOGETHER--- It was just nice being with a bunch of a lot different folks, college kids through grand-dads, all fired up and supporting each other to do something bigger than each of us individually. (It was also nice that other patrons bought us drinks.... ;^) TOUCHING--- I was touched by those of you who were able to be there in person to support me (and also record the event) and almost go through it with me.... I didn't appreciate y'all dragging me to "the chair" kicking and screaming though --- my arms are still a bit sore..... ;^) (Kidding, of course, for the those of you who were not there!) You can check out the web site if you want to see all the shavees before and after pictures, and information about the event (or still want to donate now that you see I've actually gone through with it ;^). Below are the links for my page and the event page: Bill: http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/shavee_info.html?ShaveeID=2007|13009 Event: http://www.stbaldricks.org/events/event_info.html?EventID=2007|268 Thanks again to each and every one of you, both for your support and for being a part of my life! Choose joy! -Bill P.S. Those of you who forwarded my initial request to others, please forward on this note of thanks as well.