St. Baldrick’s

Posted by TeamCharlie on July 22, 2008 under Kids are Heroes | Be the First to Comment

One day in the spring time of this year I was looking for something to do with MaryMargaret, as my wife Michelle was off playing tennis.  I heard about a community expo in Mt Airy so I thought I would check it out.  To be honest, it didn’t offer that much entertainment for us, so we were only there for about an hour if that.  But on the way out we approached a table we hadn’t seen yet.  A bright young girl asked MaryMargaret if she would like a lollipop.  She can’t say “no” to that type of thing, so I indulged her.  This girl, who I would later find out is named Amy, asked me very politely if she could tell me her story.  I was all ears.  As it turned out, she and her two siblings (Shannon who is 10 and Todd who is 14) were about to get their heads shaved.  A “St Baldrick’s” (which is a play on words mixing “bald” into St Patrick’s) event was scheduled for the next month in Westminster.  This is a group that focuses specifically on child cancer research. The head shaving events are performed to show solidarity to the children losing their hair for medical reasons, as well as to raise money for the St. Baldrick’s group.  As it turned out, their mom was the one organizing the event.  That family has a special affinity towards the group since one of their other siblings is a 20 year cancer survivor.  I was very moved to hear the story about Amy and her family.  Amy is 17 and was about to lose 20 some inches of her hair!  Shannon who is very close to MaryMargaret’s age was doing it as well.  I felt that these were perfect candidates for the “Kids are Heroes” website so I asked if they would participate which they did indeed.  As it turns out they raised over $19,000.00 for cancer research at that one event.  That is not all the family does either.  In Beth’s (the matriarch of the family) words, ” …my kids presented the Veggie Tales’ skit, “Dave and The Giant Pickle” to over 500 children with cancer in 44 children’s hospitals and 35 Ronald McDonald Houses in major cities across the country in 1999 & 2001 when we biked our childhood cancer awareness tour we called, “One Voice Across America“. Shannon was 4 when she played “Dave”, a little asparagus guy (representing a child) going up against the Goliath beast (cancer), because “Little guys can do big things, too!”. ” 

My point here is it is amazing to me the people we are meeting as a result of MaryMargaret’s website.  Shannon and MaryMargaret are now friends who share play dates and sleepovers as most kids do.  What’s a bit unusual is that they will also share Kids are Heroes Day on September 6th, and a warm giving heart.