A couple of months ago the kids from our church school wanted to do something to help a local kid with cancer. The idea was that people would raise money to get their head shaved (once you raised $300 you were going bald!). So people in the church started volunteering and the money started coming in:
Note: All of these people made their goal with just a couple of exceptions - a couple backed out early in the race and one teen girl's dad talked her out of shaving her head. Everyone else met the goal even though the chart wasn't updated in this picture.
Unfortunately, after we picked a family and child, within just a few days of picking her, the child passed away. At 9 years old. It was incredibly sad, but also I think it made us realize how important this was to do - to support a family and hopefully help pay off some of their bills to make their load a little lighter. So we picked a new family - the Shaws. Ryan Shaw is three years old and has a tumor in his chest that doctors say they have never seen in a child his age. We found out last night that it has spread to his lymph nodes. And yet, there is always hope!!
Saturday was the big day for head shaving. We spent the first two hours eating, playing games, getting faces painted, and meeting the entire Shaw family who came to meet the people from our church. Also, a few of them got shaved. :) A band comprised of guys from our church also played. Their name is Caught Up and they rock! They were a bit less hairy after the shaving as you will see in later pictures!
This is how we occupied ourselves before the shaving ceremony:
The little boy in green is Ryan Shaw:
At 1:00 the shaving began. We had 16 people from church getting shaved plus people from the Shaw family.
These are the ladies from church who volunteered their heads and Ryan - their inspiration!
This is the before picture:
It begins with Ryan's family members and our preacher:
Then came the rest of our church members one by one:
The new, bald Caught Up!
Got this picture from Cindy. We had to leave early (why? You'll have to read my next post - Saturday, Part 3!) and we missed the last five or six shavees.
Here is a short clip of Caught Up playing:
All in all we raised around $6000 for the family. I really hope that helps them some with bills. The father was actually just laid off from his job for taking so much time off which makes their situation even tougher. I'm so thankful we were able to do something like this for a family in the community. Maybe this can become an annual event? Will the ladies do it again so soon? We'll have to see.....
Posts
