It’s that time of year and the St. Baldrick’s Day event is fast approaching. St. Baldrick’s Day is a fundraising event held on the DMU campus on Tuesday, February 10th to benefit the St. Baldrick’s Foundation which is committed to the research for treatments of childhood cancer. Although any cancer diagnosis has obstacles to remission, childhood cancers come with unique difficulties. Besides a 20% overall mortality rate, 80% of pediatric cancer survivors will experience life-long complications. Despite the challenges, childhood cancer research is still grossly underfunded. This is where the St. Baldrick’s Foundation comes in. So how do we help?
The St. Baldrick’s fundraiser centers around teams of volunteers who reach out in their own unique way to raise money. Many volunteers will opt to have their heads shaved to encourage donations, however this is not the only way to contribute to St. Baldrick’s. In fact anyone can raise money for the foundation with/or without the hair cut. You can make the fundraising experience as unique as you like. If you feel so inclined to do the big chop, professional barbers will be available the day of the event to make sure you look your best. Raising funds is as simple as signing up, then encouraging friends and family to donate to your page. To sign up, visit our St. Baldrick’s Day site, where you can register to participate and help us towards our $20,000 goal. You can register as an individual, join a pre-existing team, or create a team of your own and recruit others to help. It’s that easy!
Moreover, DMU’s St. Baldrick’s Day is fortunate to have garnered lots of support from the community this year. On Friday, February 13th, Up-Down Arcade Bar is generously donating all token sales sold from 5-8 p.m. to DMU’s St. Baldrick’s Day campaign. Furthermore, 8|7 Central: Design and Screen Print are selling a special edition T-shirt with an uplifting message as an additional way to help raise funds.
The St. Baldrick’s event, which is the culmination of our fundraising efforts, will be held in the SEC commons from 2:30 p.m.- 6:30 p.m. on February 10th. This event will feature several exciting activities, including Minute-to-Win-It style games, a “Faculty Pie Auction” in which you can bid for a pie to put in the face of your favorite professor, and a prize raffle at the end. In addition to these activities, those who help raise funds will receive the following benefits: free food catered by Z’marik’s Noodle Cafe for raising $25 or more, a St. Baldrick’s t-shirt for raising $50, and for every $50 dollars you raise you will receive a raffle ticket toward winning prizes!
Lastly, as fun and wonderful as the event is going to be, let us never lose sight of what the true meaning of St. Baldrick’s and that is to “Conquer Childhood Cancer”.