For Sigma Nu members, shaving their hair off for St. Baldricks is a tradition, but for many cancer patients the charity event is more than just a yearly activity. Sigma Nu hosted the fourth annual St. Baldrick’s event on Harris Field Sunday, April 7.
Zac Fagan, event organizer and junior in sport management, said it is a good way to show children with cancer that they have support.
“When kids are going through chemo they lose their hair, so that can be a very vulnerable time for the kid going through that,” Fagan said. “Not a lot of people are bald, so to be a bald kid in elementary school and middle school, it affects your confidence. We all go bald to say you aren’t going through this alone.”
Bobby Porter, a sophomore in agricultural management, was inspired by fellow Sigma Nu members to shave his head.
“We have brothers that have family members who have had cancer, it means a little bit more,” Porter said.
The week before the event, several of the fraternity’s members shaved odd designs into their hair to raise awareness and help advertise the event. Wafic El-Kara, a freshman in electrical engineering, participated in the pre-event shave.
“It was an interesting experience, many weird looks and a lot of people asked us why’d we do that to ourselves,” El-Kara said.
Ryan McInnis said he thinks it encourages people to shave their heads for St. Baldricks.
”We would talk them into coming out here,” McInnis said. “It gives us an icebreaker.”
Karim Habbal, a freshman in industrial engineering, had hair on only half of his head.
“I look good from this side,” Habbal said jokingly.
Sigma Nu also used Facebook to advertise.
Jack Fleming,10, was youngest person to shave his hair at the event. He was inspired by one of his older sisters’ friends who shaved his head at the beginning of the event.
Fleming raised more than $500 and said he plans to do it again.
Several girls participated as well.
Aleiah Miller, a junior in Spanish, came with her dad and he shaved her shoulder length hair. Participating in St. Baldricks was something she said she wanted to do but she decided not to last year at the last minute.
“I wanted to do it last year and I chickened out,” Miller said. “This time I signed up and posted right away so everyone would be helping me through it.”
Miller said she felt inspired by the recent death of her uncle to cancer. She also said seeing babies with cancer inspired her to shave her head.
Miller chose to have her father to cut off her hair because he is a barber, and she felt it would make the experience more significant.
“Originally I didn’t think of him, but then I was like this is something that he could help me with,” Miller said. “We decided to tag team it. I wanted it to be meaningful.”
Her father, Christopher Miller, was apprehensive at first when he heard she wanted to participate in St. Baldricks.
“When she first told me she was going to get her hair cut off, I thought it was absurd,” Miller said. ”When we were coming this morning, all I could think of was like a spiritual rebirth. I am so proud of her because male pattern baldness runs in our family and I never wanted to see my daughter’s hair so short.”
“I felt like my whole life was spent in the chair,” Miller said in regard to her nervousness before the shave.
Miller raised $300.
Sigma Nu raised more than $14,000 for the charity. Ryan Olli, a sophomore in sport management, raised the most money, totaling $481.