ROCK ISLAND– More than 70 local fraternity members at Augustana College spent their Saturday on April 22, 2017 raising awareness for childhood cancer research.
The Rho Nu Delta fraternity hosted the event, which invites volunteers to raise money and shave their heads for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. This is the sixth year the fraternity has hosted the event at the Pepsico Recreational Center on campus.
More than $11,000 was raised towards their goal of $20,000 just half way through the day of the event.
33 people shaved their heads, and 90 people volunteered at the event.
One of them was student Brinda Murali.
“My hair has always defined my looks and my beauty,” says Murali, an international student at Augustana who raised $550 for the charity before shaving her head. “Being able to give it up is something really humbling for me.”
Murali had her head shaved while face-timing her parents in Sri Lanka all while her sorority sat in the front row chanting her name.
Six local barbers donated their time to help with the head-shaving.
“This is an easy to give back for us,” says Brandon Scott, a barber at New Style Barbershop in Moline, IL. “(The fundraiser participants) have done a lot of work, they’ve raised a lot of money, and now we get to come here and cut their hair.”
Event organizers say it took three months to plan the event.
“I am very proud of the way these guys worked to raise money for something so important,” says Rho Nu Delta president Nicholas Torres.
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation was started 17 years ago and in just two years, the organization raised one million dollars, according to their website. Since 2005, more than $200-million has gone towards childhood cancer research grants.
Rho Nu Delta fraternity, this is their largest fundraising event for the Rho Nu Delta fraternity.