Hi, I'm shaving my head to raise money for childhood cancer research. In 2002 I had a student at Berkeley High named Anthony Lee Franklin. Lee was kind of famous because he was a star athlete, a great student, movie-star handsome and charming and sincere and had this incredible smile. Coincidentally, his aunt had been my manager when I worked at Ace Hardware, and they were very close.

When Lee was 13 he had had leukemia, and he and Barry Bonds campaigned together for more African-Americans to get on the bone marrow registry. His chemo worked, so he didn't need a transplant, and when I met him at 18, he was strong and healthy and had his whole life ahead of him. He gave a speech in my class where he talked about wanting to have kids. Four years later the cancer came back and he didn't make it. He would have been 30 now, and maybe had some kids with that smile.

Here's an article about Lee in SF Gate: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/PROFILE-Lee-Franklin-STAR-BRIGHT-Lee-2868278.php

Every year there are improvements in the treatments for childhood cancer. A lot of the kids who have had cancer since Lee have fewer damaging side effects and better outcomes. Childhood cancer is really hard to even think about because it's the worst nightmare for anyone who loves a child, but donating to this organization is a way to help fight it.

Please consider donating even a few dollars to children's cancer research.

Join me if you want! If you have 8" of hair to spare, they can give it to Locks of Love to make wigs, and if you have short hair they sweep up all the leftovers to make booms to clean up oil spills.

Thanks, Gabe