Bald is beautiful!

On March 14th, a record number of Saltus students and relatives had their heads shaved to raise funds for the St Baldrick’s Foundation. As of March 18th, Saltus participants had exceeded their goal of $120,000 and raised over $200,000! There is still time to donate by going to www.stbaldricks.org. According to Tara Soares, Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre’s Executive Director, a portion of funds raised in Bermuda will go to BCHC’s SunSmart Programme which is “a school and summer camp based programme teaching sun protective behaviours”.

In addition, Locks of Love (www. Locksoflove.org) also benefited as there were several Upper Primary and Secondary girls, along with two mothers, a teacher, and a sister from BHS (whose brother had his head shaved), who donated their hair to provide hair pieces for children with long-term medically related hair loss. Of these, a few had their heads shaved as well!

This year we were fortunate to have Mrs Susan Heard, Director of Partnerships for the St Baldrick’s Foundation, join us at Saltus. Mrs Heard lost her son to cancer but says that in this past St Baldricks’ Foundation grant cycle, “there has been a variety of funding given to doctors looking at promising new therapies in neuroblastoma, the cancer that took David’s life. That is the progress David was hoping for and that is why my family continues to commit ourselves to fundraising for St. Baldrick’s!”

Mrs Heard was impressed with the level of participation from students, relatives and staff: “I could feel the energy of the Saltus community as soon as we drove through the campus gates. The level of involvement from the children was awesome. But more so was the investment of time and care that the teachers put into preparing the students for the event. I felt their understanding. Under the jubilant atmosphere there was a sense of understanding that something bigger than shaving heads was happening. They deeply understood and took to heart the mission that they were standing in solidarity with kids who have cancer. That is thanks to the amazing teachers, staff and parents at Saltus. It was deeply humbling to represent the St Baldrick’s Foundation in Bermuda. Thank you for the amazing hospitality and your investment in funding childhood cancer research!”

The hairdressers from the following salons volunteered their time and expertise for this cause: Salon Visage, The Cutting Room, Salon 27, Bang Bang Hair, The Hideaway and TK Hair.