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<\/a><\/p>\nHeld nationwide to support the St. Baldrick\u2019s Foundation, each \u201cbash\u201d features volunteers who agree to have their heads shaved to help raise both awareness and funds for childhood cancer research. In addition to fundraising by individual participants, PAMS collected additional funds through a coin competition among all core teams, which raised $3,330, and donations to participate in a schoolwide Hat Day. An admission fee for the St. Baldrick\u2019s Bash and bake sale at the event added to the funds collected for the foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t believe we\u2019ve raised over $20,000 and that\u2019s right now,\u201d said Abby, smiling as people streamed into the gym for the afterschool event. \u201cI\u2019ve heard there are going to be a lot of kids here so we\u2019re going to probably raise a lot more money, and I think it\u2019s great that the kids are willing to help out and support this.\u201d<\/p>\n
They supported with their time, their money and \u2013 for the main event \u2013 their hair.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have 24 shavees. They\u2019ll go up four at a time and most of them are going completely bald,\u201d Patty explained. \u201cIt\u2019s a big commitment. They\u2019re going to go out and they\u2019re going to be bald, and people are going to say, \u2018Hey what\u2019s going on?\u2019 Then they can spread the word \u2013 especially our girls.\u201d<\/p>\n
The females who participated included: PAMS seventh-grader Abby Turner, PAMS PTA President Christine Sullivan, Arrowhead Elementary third-grader teacher Haylie Heard, and Thalia Elementary fifth-grader Natalie Halstead. Turner opted for a pixie cut, explaining before the event, \u201cI\u2019m not that brave.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou almost were. You debated it,\u201d corrected her mother. \u201cI think it\u2019s fabulous. She signed up for it on her own and I\u2019m proud of her.\u201d<\/p>\n Turner\u2019s younger sister, Zoey, was proud of her, too. So proud that Zoey decided at the event that she wanted to participate, getting her long hair cut into a short bob. Turner held her sister\u2019s hand on stage for support.<\/p>\n \u201cI like it,\u201d Turner said of her own new haircut. \u201cAnd I\u2019m happy that I actually got to help.\u201d<\/p>\n PAMS sixth-grader Andy Borst also wanted to help and support a friend.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m friends with Abby [Furco] and she goes to my church,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt like I should do it out of respect for her.\u201d Fifth-grader Halstead said she became interested in participating after seeing the T-shirt a previous shavee was wearing. \u201cI looked it up and I wanted to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n She raised $2,065 for the PAMS event and had a large crowd of family and friends in the gymnasium cheering for her. Admitting to being a little nervous before, Halstead was happy with the experience and her new, very short hairstyle. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make a difference because I\u2019m still myself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a lesson Heard hopes her 4-year-old daughter and her Arrowhead third-graders will learn by seeing her participate in the St. Baldrick\u2019s Bash. \u201cIt\u2019s a double win,\u201d Heard said of the teaching moment and raising money for a good cause. She raised more than $1,600.<\/p>\n Heard\u2019s daughter, however, was not pleased with the head-shaving decision, even after her parents\u2019 explanation the night before.<\/p>\n \u201cWe told her that you join in with the kids because sometimes, when they\u2019re really, really sick, they lose their hair with the treatment. She gets it a little bit more now, but hair is still pretty to her and she\u2019s worried that I\u2019m not going to have it,\u201d said Heard before the event.<\/p>\n In the crowd to watch her mom, Heard eventually brought her crying daughter on stage to wipe her tears.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as she got up with me, I reminded her again of why we\u2019re doing it. It definitely helped,\u201d Heard said after, adding about her haircut, \u201cIt feels good. My head feels a lot lighter.\u201d<\/p>\n Less<\/em> hair is what a few male PAMS teachers and administrators joked they did not<\/em> need as they waited for their turns on stage. Students were excited to see Jamie Arnett, Peter Ayala, Hunter Dunlo, Ian Jewell, Zachary Bucholz and Alex Bergren get their heads shaved. Jewell only shaved his beard, after a vote based on student donations was for the beard to go. Arnett, who also encouraged students to donate money, let two students step in for the professional stylists volunteering their time and services \u2013 Ashley Russo, Honey Kidd, Susan Evans, Sonya Arrington and Patrick Reid were there from Rudy and Kelly Hairstylists, along with independent stylists Doug Lane and Georgia Huber. Bergren, the school\u2019s principal, was the last participant in the chair and was recognized as the top fundraiser \u2013 narrowly beating Sullivan. Each raised more than $3,100.<\/p>\n Abby had the honor of taking the first snips of Bergren\u2019s hair, which he styled into a mohawk for the special occasion.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been an amazing response and I\u2019m really proud of the kids,\u201d said Bergren. \u201cWe set our goal at $10,000 and we\u2019re going to pass $25,000. It\u2019s incredible. It\u2019s been a really awesome community effort.\u201d<\/p>\n Individuals can still donate to the school\u2019s St. Baldrick\u2019s Bash by visiting the online fundraising page<\/a>. To view more photos from the PAMS event, visit the VBSchools Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWhen we asked the school if they would let us put this on here they jumped on board immediately,\u201d said Patty Furco. \u201cIt\u2019s an undertaking to support Abby and other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":7699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[87],"class_list":["post-7708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-connections","tag-princess-anne-middle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7708"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7712,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7708\/revisions\/7712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n