When it comes to fundraising, everyone has a different motivation for selecting the causes and charities that they select.  Although difficult, I wanted to share with you why I am selecting raising money for children with cancer. On June 2, 2000, my life was turned upside down when I had to face the traumatic reality that at the young age of 24 I would lose the one person who loved me unconditionally, my mother.  My entire world shattered and changed when she succumbed to her bout with cancer.  For four years, I watched my mother fight and suffer as this horrible disease sucked the life out of her and all of the people she loved.  Around this time last year, I saw a commercial about the St. Baldrick’s foundation. As I researched the foundation and watched some videos, I had flashbacks of the pain I went through watching my mother fight cancer and imagined the pain she was going through.  In one of the videos that stood out to me the most I witnessed helpless innocent children fight for their lives, as a father of two of my own young children I know it was a sign and a call to action to do whatever I can to help this fight against cancer.  I couldn’t be a bystander when it came to such an important issue and I realized that cancer is a universal disease that doesn’t discriminate against age, race, wealth and it could happen to anyone. With the realization of how many people are affected by this, I decided to turn my pain into motivation to help others. My first step is to help the youth who suffer from this by participating, for the second year in a row, in St. Baldrick’s Foundation fundraiser. I will be shaving my head with students at Anna L. Klein School in Guttenberg, New Jersey. Any donation you can make – large or small counts and will help.  A piece of me will always be missing but I know that my mother would be extremely proud of me for my efforts and grateful toward anyone who will help fight this nasty disease.