Shaved heads benefit pediatric cancer research

BYRON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Dozens of people cut their facial hair or shaved their heads Sunday to raise money to support research into childhood cancer.

Pat Schrager organizes the annualSt. Baldrick's Foundationevent at the 84th Street Pub & Grille in Byron Township, south of Grand Rapids.

"We got involved because a friend of our daughter had leukemia at 5," Schrager said.

She won her fight and is now 23.

"When we moved back to West Michigan, there wasn’t an event, so we started one," he said.

The first local event was held in 2013, but the national St. Baldrick's Foundation was created more than a decade earlier.

"So three guys got together … wanted to raise money and awareness for childhood cancer research. They wanted to raise $17,000 on St. Patrick's Day in 2000," Shrager explained.

They came up with the idea of auctioning off shaves. Volunteers agree to give up their hair and donors pay to sponsor each cut.

Steven Strauss was among the first to get his head shaved for the cause.

"It’s just a lot of fun," he said. "It started shaving in bars like this in New York city, then we realized, though, the impact that it made."

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