St. Baldrick's Foundation asks, "Did you know that every three minutes a child is diagnosed with cancer? Or that most survivors of childhood cancer live with health problems —sometimes life-threatening ones — caused by the very treatments that saved them?"
As a member of the EΣ Chapter of Sigma Tau Gamma and a Volunteer Event Organizer for the St. Baldrick's Foundation, Nick Coglianese successfully planned the fraternity's first philanthropy event for childhood cancer, Shave 'n' Toss. The event consisted of a bags and corn-hole competition, raffle baskets, custom shirts for the event, auctioning of beards to shave and 12 volunteers shaving their heads. This is the first time the chapter has put on the event, but they hope that it will grow to become an annual tradition. The weekend before the event they raised $2,026 of their $5,000 goal strictly by online donations. $1,000 of that total came from Alpha Sigma Tau member, Abbi Senger.
Signing up a week before the event, Abbi decided to participate in the head-shaving. "Hair is just hair, and it is going to grow back. In the meantime, I'm raising a bit of money for kids with cancer who are underfunded. The gap between funding for adult cancer and childhood cancer is staggering, and if I can help lessen it, then why not," she said.
With a beginning goal of $500, Abbi reached that in two days. The next day she pumped her goal up to $700 and reached that in under 24 hours! Abbi's final goal of $1,000 was reached on Sunday, March 27, just a few days before the event.
On the day of the event, Abbi found out that she had raised almost $1,500 by herself. After 14 shaved heads, the eventful night raised $4,863 for the St. Baldrick's Foundation. With a room full of Greeks, families, students and faculty members, Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville came together for a night that impacted many and will continue to grow.
