Elphinstone Secondary School raised more than $6,000 for the Cops for Cancer group Sept. 17 with a fun head-shaving event.Teachers and staff at the high school volunteered to dye their hair in brilliant shades, to sacrifice their beards and moustaches or to be shaved bald - all for a certain price. Students joined in with enthusiasm, bidding to see their favourite - or least favourite - teachers dye their hair acid pink or platinum blonde.
The hair dyeing went on all week at the school, and the "big shave" event culminated Friday afternoon with a rally in the gym, where barber John Rainer and hairdresser Vicki Cairns clipped and shaved the teachers to the tune of pounding rock music. Hundreds of students cheered as the hair fell to the gym floor, and many students joined in to have their heads shaved as well.
Dave Lewis, the teacher and volleyball coach who helped organize the event, said he and his team were inspired by watching the Cops for Cancer Tour for a Friend bike rally ride past the school every year, and this year the event was particularly poignant.
"A number of staff in this district were stricken with cancer, and a number of staff in school have friends or family members fighting cancer," said Lewis after his own bright-blond hair fell under Rainer's clippers. "It seemed like a good time to hold a fund-raiser."
Lewis said everyone from the secretaries to the teachers joined in with enthusiasm.
"They all looked at it from the point of view that it's hair, it's going to grow back," he said.
The students donated more than $3,000, and Lewis said the icing on the cake came with the unexpected news that an anonymous donor had decided to match whatever money the school raised, bumping the total to over $6,000.
The high school did not hold a Terry Fox event this year. Lewis said the plan is to alternate years of raising funds for Terry Fox and Cops for Cancer."Next year everything goes to Terry Fox," he said.
