Wendi Schoffstall first heard of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation when she was asked to photograph Emily, one of the Foundation’s five 2012 Ambassador Kids. At first a sweet girl with the soft smile captured by Wendi’s lens, it didn’t take long for Emily to capture Wendi’s heart.
On Saturday, March 3, Wendi shaved her head in honor of Emily, to raise money for childhood cancer research. Wendi shares her thoughts from before and after her shave, the reason she chose to get bald, and a little more about the girl who started it all:
“On March 3rd, I’m shaving my head. Bald.
Now why would a person that actually likes their hair willingly do such a thing? For her:
And for every child that has fought, is fighting and will fight childhood cancer. I am doing it because this sweet, soft-spoken, amazingly beautiful girl has changed me in a way that is larger than any words I can string together. I am doing it because after meeting her I couldn’t ignore it. I am doing it so that at the end of the day I can know that I did SOMETHING.
In the grand scheme of things it might be small, it might be insignificant, but it is still something, and that matters.
In 2010, at the age of 5, Emily was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. But that isn’t who she is. She is so much more than ‘cancer.’ She is someone’s baby girl, someone’s little sister, someone’s best friend. She has dreams and plans and deserves the chance to fulfill them.
After leaving our session I couldn’t sit still and I couldn’t get Emily out of my mind. But what struck me most about our meeting was her mother. She just keeps rolling with the punches and I would imagine they are pretty hard punches to bear. You know how people say ‘try to put yourself in someone else’s shoes’? No thank you. As much as I admire her mother’s grace, I don’t want to know what it is like to wake up every morning knowing that you have to fight for your child, worry that every fever will lead to something more, stress about how you balance time between a child with cancer and a child without. I won’t imagine what it is like to live a day in her life. I refuse.”
Wendi faced the clippers on Saturday, with family, friends, as well as, Emily and her family, there to cheer her on. Emily had a surprise to give Wendi after her shave, but as Wendi walked into the event venue that day, Emily was just so excited, she couldn’t wait. Emily’s mother, Orfelinda, describes that moment as one her family will remember forever:
“As Wendi approached our table she was laughing and joking. She was talking to herself saying, ‘Why did I do this?’ And then she made it to the table, face-to-face with Emily. As Emily handed her flowers, and she saw the drawing, Wendi could not hold the tears, and neither could I.”
As Wendi sat in the barber chair, Emily took the first few swipes of her hair, then passed the clippers off to the supervising barber.
“When she was all done,” Orfelinda described, “some saw a bald head, but I could only see the beauty in her eyes, and in her heart. As she got up, they asked her why she had done such thing, and she could not talk, looking out at Emily, with tears in her face, she said, ‘It was her.’”
It was her. This child with cancer had touched Wendi in such a deep and powerful way – a feeling known and cherished by many St. Baldrick’s shavees.
“Thank you Emily for opening my eyes to a bigger world, a more colorful world,” said Wendi. “I owe you more than your 7-year-old mind will be able to comprehend. It is my sincerest hope that this is just a short chapter for you and later you will be able to look back and know that you made a difference… to me… to many.”
Watch the video coverage of Emily shaving Wendi’s head:
SBF
Tweets »
