Hey, St. Baldrick's Heroes!!
A few of you have been reaching out to me with 'Hey!...it's MARCH! What's the story?!?!'...because I obviously usually start a̶n̶n̶o̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ contacting you long before now! So, here's the scoop...
After some brainstorming by and with our long-time event organizer, Tanya, the decision was made to schedule the 2021 edition of St. Baldrick's at Brimstone Tavern for Saturday, JUNE 26! Yes, that's obviously much closer to the 4th of July than it is to St. Patrick's Day, but we all felt pushing back this year's head-shaving extravaganza gave us the best shot at holding a LIVE, in-person event as we hopefully are well into putting COVID in the rear-view mirror by then!
To be honest, *our* 2020 event really lucked out, as we held it literally just DAYS before most of the major St. Baldrick's events around the United States began postponing (and cancelling) in the face of the still-new public health crisis we've all been doing our best to work through ever since. So many of us have not only had family members, friends, and co-workers impacted directly by COVID but so many others have had their lives, livelihoods and well-being turned upside down. Cancer patients are no exception. Imagine not only having an immune system left extremely compromised by radiation or chemo protocols, but then not being sure you would even be able to receive the treatments depending on when/where they were scheduled.
Even during a pandemic, cancer sucks...and childhood cancers suck the most. That's why the mission of The St. Baldrick's Foundation and its role as the BIGGEST non-government funder of childhood cancer research cannot and WILL not be deterred. Many early 2021 events are staying virtual, but we knew we wanted a LIVE event and are hoping so much we can do just that!
As you can imagine, the amount raised by St. Baldrick's in 2020....monies raised to fund the very BEST childhood cancer research...was far (ok, very far) below the annual numbers of the last several years. We need one of those "V-shaped recoveries" the economists talk about!
So, here I am hoping you will once again help me out in this...my *14th year* as a St. Baldrick's "shavee". I will keep you updated as our vent draws closer, and might even pass along some St. Baldrick's funding and grant updates in that time, too.
I hope all of you are well, and my heart goes out to any of you who have suffered loss of any kind in this past year.
Thank you for all you have done to support this cause.
John
"Buzzfan"