The Georgetown baseball team will hold its first St. Baldrick’s Foundation fundraiser April 5 to raise money for cancer research. The team has pledged to shave their heads after the second of a three-game series matchup with Xavier, a home game against the first Big East opponents of the season at Shirley Povich Field.
Three local children who have been affected by cancer will join the Georgetown baseball team on the field. They will throw out the ceremonial first pitches of the game.
The team is currently anticipating 50 participants who will get their heads shaved, and more are expected as the event nears.
“The idea first came to me to bring this to Georgetown as I participated in a past St. Baldrick’s event with my summer collegiate team,” captain Steve Anderson (COL ’14), a senior first basemen, said. “I saw the tremendous impact that night had, as we raised over $15,000.”
With more children lost to cancer than any other disease in the United States, St. Baldrick’s commits 82 percent of raised funds to cure research and preventative care for patients. The foundation raises money for childhood cancer research primarily through head-shaving donation events.
“At our St. Baldrick’s signature head-shaving events, we have people that will register and volunteer to shave their heads,” St. Baldrick’s Media and Public Relations Specialist Traci Shirk told The Hoya. “Part of that is to stand in solidarity with children who lost their hair during treatment, and the other part is to raise funds for childhood cancer research.”
Volunteers sponsored by family, friends and employers shave their heads in solidarity with children who typically lose their hair during cancer treatment.
“There’s usually a lot of people out there, cheering them [participants] on,” Shirk said. “There’s also a lot of emotions, because a lot of times, when people shave and they have a personal connection to someone with cancer, when they get in that chair and they start to feel the clippers on their head and getting their head shaved, it becomes an emotional moment for them as well.”
“In the fall, when Steve [Anderson] mentioned the idea of holding a head-shaving event, there was tremendous support from the entire team,” Evan Ryan (COL ’16), an outfielder, wrote in an email. “Cancer affects everybody, whether personally, through a family member,or through a friend.”
At the time of publication, the baseball team had surpassed its goal of $31,000 and hopes to break the record among athletic teams that have ever participated in the event. Accordingly, Anderson has set a new goal for the team of $40,000.
Events have taken place in all 50 states and 28 countries. Since 2000, St. Baldrick’s Foundation volunteers have organized nearly 4,200 head-shaving events and shaved over 190,500 heads, raising over $118 million for life-saving childhood cancer research.
“This year, we are almost at $23 million raised for the year,” Shirk said. “Last year we raised over $34 million, so we are definitely on track to surpass that this year.”
According to the St. Baldrick’s website, only 4 percent of federal funding for cancer research goes to childhood cancer. Therefore, the money raised will have a significant effect in the effort to find a cure and treatment for children.
The cause is also very personal for Anderson, who lost his mother to multiple myeloma cancer at the age of eight.
“I have seen firsthand the devastating effects that cancer has on not only the individual who is battling it, but also on their family as a whole,” Anderson said. “I saw the strength my mother displayed in the face of her condition and have tried to use that in my own life.”
The Georgetown University Grilling Societyy (GUGS) has also agreed to come out to the game and provide free burgers for all those in attendance. The burgers and drinks at the event will be funded by Students of Georgetown, Inc., through their philanthropy fund.
MedStar Georgetown University Hospital is also organizing a St. Baldrick’s fundraiser March 28 in Sellinger Lounge from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
