A St. Baldrick’s event interview with Chris Haggerty, shavee and co-organizer of the Mickey Byrne’s Irish Pub event in Hollywood, Florida on Sept. 15. This event raised more than $42,000 for children’s cancer research!
What motivated you to get involved with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation?
My first experience with St. Baldrick’s was as a shavee last year. When I signed up, I asked my friends if they knew a local child with cancer that I could talk to and honor. Several people told me about Maddie.
I met Maddie the day of the event, and when she walked in the place filled with incredible energy. She gave me a big hug and a special pin she made me. I wore it like a badge of pride. When it was my turn to get shaved with my son Zachary, Maddie walked onto that stage with us, and this little girl did something incredible. She held my hand the entire time I was getting shaved, and kept saying, “You’re doing good big guy. You’re so strong big guy.” This 8-year-old girl, who was fully aware of her prognosis, was telling ME I was strong. Maddie is half of my inspiration for my new passion.
My father would become the other half of my inspiration. Less than a week after our son Zach was born in 2006, my father was diagnosed with prostate cancer. In March of 2011 my father’s health began to deteriorate. But, as was tradition, he and my brothers went to that St. Baldrick’s event together. It was the last thing he did. While in hospice care, I sat with him and asked why, if he was in so much pain, did he still go to the St. Baldrick’s event?
“I’ve lived a great life. In the five years since I was diagnosed, I’ve had two grandkids born, gone to Alaska and Hawaii, and played a lot of golf. I have a wife, three sons and grandchildren,” he said. “Those kids at the event with cancer, they most likely won’t get those things. No one should miss out on living a great life.”
I promised him that no matter where I lived or what I was doing, I would make that city’s St. Baldrick’s event the biggest and best it could be.
My dad lost his battle with cancer on September 2nd, 2011. Maddie lost hers on November 26th, 2011.
The pre-event fundraisers were great at getting the word out. In South Florida there is a huge food truck movement. I know several of the owners and spoke to them about putting donation jars on their trucks. They all agreed, and asked for posters and other materials to promote the event. Since these trucks use social media to promote themselves, we decided to use this to our advantage. One of the truck owners came up with the hashtag #TRUCKSLOVETHEKIDZZZ (which, if you know your hip-hop music, is a play on a song by the south Florida-based rapper Trick Daddy called Trick Loves The Kids). Every tweet and every Facebook post, had #TRUCKSLOVETHEKIDS on it. It became somewhat of a competition between trucks. More and more trucks got involved. The week of our event, we had 32 trucks with donation jars and posters on them raising money.
We also used these trucks to host food truck rallies to get the word out. At the first food truck rally there were 10 trucks in one location. They agreed to donate 10% of their profit that evening to St. Baldricks. We gave out a raffle tickets for every $5 spent on food. That evening, we raised over $500, plus each person learned about the event and the charity. The 2nd food truck event was bigger with 30 trucks at the city park down the street from where the main event was being held. One of our Honored Kids, Sofia A., came with her family and they were treated like royalty. She took pictures with every truck owner. The truck from the local Cold Stone Creamery allowed Sofia and our other Honored Kid Aaron (who couldn’t be there due to his low blood count) the opportunity to create their own flavors. Sofia picked coffee ice cream with brownies and almonds. Aaron picked cotton candy ice cream with marshmallows and EXTRA sprinkles.
How would you describe the energy of the Mickey Byrnes event?
The room was electric. We planned for the big shavee, Dr. Brian Cauff , to go towards the end so more people would stay. People said they would shave their eyebrows if people donated another $300. One gentleman hadn’t shaved his beard since the last event in 2011 and said he would shave it if people donated $500.
We had a local TV news Anchor, a local Radio show host, and the current Miss Florida as our hosts. One very special moment was when Christine Bougard, Maddie’s mom, spoke. When she spoke last year there wasn’t a dry eye in the place. This year was no exception. She had pictures of local cancer survivors and spoke about each case.
Shaving my head with Zach is probably the proudest day of my life, second only to his birth. When he heard I was shaving he asked if he could, too. Every day after I picked him up from school, the first thing he would do was check his St. Baldrick’s donation page. He knew it wasn’t for him, but for “kids like Maddie.”
The day of the event Zach was a rockstar! He wasn’t nervous or shy. Even with hundreds of strangers and TV cameras in his face, he smiled the whole time. We held hands in memory of Maddie, and took turns kissing each others bald heads for the cameras afterwards.
Any advice for others who want to follow your footsteps and plan their own event?
Advice for others is simple: Dedicate yourself to it. It’s almost a 2nd full-time job. Your “pay” is knowing that your hard work, lack of sleep, sore feet, and cell phone bills will all be worth it if just one kid is helped by what you are doing. Just putting a smile on their face is worth it to me. I will do it again next year, only bigger and better. I have a promise to keep.
You can make a difference for kids with cancer too. Learn about organizing your own St. Baldrick’s event to raise money for lifesaving children’s cancer research.
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