Author:	Mark Webber
	Grade:	Junior
	School:	Colfax HS
	Mascot:	Bulldogs
	League:	Bi-County
	Classification:	2B

Help From A Community

Last year, Colfax High School, raised money through the St Baldrick’s Foundation to support research for kids cancer. To raise money, students and community members had the option to shave their heads. People would donate money for your head to be shaved, so it was like getting sponsored by a community member or a local business. All the money that was donated went straight to the foundation.

My friend Andrew is the one who brought the idea up to the leadership team. He had done this since the 3rd grade. He finally decided that he wanted to get the whole community involved and thought it would be a great idea to have a huge time to shave heads at an assembly during school. Students had to get permission from their guardians and then they tried to get at least $50 donated to get their heads shaved.

The day of our assembly found our gymnasium packed. The whole school had shown up and members of the community were there too. I had already said I was going to shave my head with some of my friends and there was probably 20 other students and 10 other community members committed. There were eight people standing next to chairs ready for the assembly to begin and cut some hair. I was in the first group of eight so I got done and got to watch the rest happen. Throughout the whole assembly more and more people committed to shaving their heads by making a phone call to their mom to get permission.

It was incredible to see everything what was happening. My sister and her friend had cut their hair and more girls were starting to come down to get it cut (but not shaved all the way). Andrew and his family went last because they organized a lot of it and it was cool to see him, his mom, his dad, and his little brother all get their heads shaved. His mom was not the only girl that shaved her head. In fact, there were probably three or four girls who did.

We did this assembly the end of February, right in the heart of basketball playoffs. We as a team talked about shaving our heads all together but we never fully decided to do it as a group. When people saw what a great thing was happening, they wanted to be apart of it. A senior captain of the basketball team went to get his shaved. One by one my teammates were coming down to get their heads shaved. The whole team except for one guy ended up shaving their heads and it was great to see what had happened.

When the assembly finally finished we had raised just over $14,000 for kids cancer research. It was great to be a part of this event. I am so blessed to live in a community that supports all of the local kids throughout the year. It was a great opportunity to help out and I have absolutely no regrets about doing this for a great cause.