Bill TolandFollow

Often my barber will remark, with envy in his voice, that he has never seen hair as clean and shiny as mine. Sometimes I will have him run through my hair with the thinning shears because the luxuriousness is just too much. Truly my hair has been one of the great blessings in my life.

But I am going to shave it off. For money. For YOUR money. And you will get to see that, beneath all of this thick and awesome hair, I do not exactly look like Yul Brynner.

The way it works is, you give me money, 15 or 50 or 1,000 bucks or whatever, and I will shave my head on March 13. The money goes to the St. Baldrick's Foundation, a charity that raises money for children with cancer. (What's the deal with the head-shaving stunt? It's a show of solidarity; most of these children lose their hair to chemo and radiation treatments.) Last year, St. Baldrick's Day shavees and their generous sponsors raised $12 million for cancer research. It's like those people who raise money by running marathons, only this is waaay easier.

Look, I know lots of people need money, and I know you get bombarded with charitable solicitations. There are starving kids in Africa, and homeless kids in Haiti, and problems all over the world. But this really is a good cause, and these really are great kids, and they're in our own backyard, and they need help, too. The sooner you donate (by clicking the "donate" button), the sooner we find a cure.

It takes two minutes to donate online. Do it now; spare yourselves the annoying e-mails later.

Humbly,
Bill