Seventeen members of the University of Alberta’s FarmHouse Fraternity took it all off — their hair that is — for a good cause on Friday.
They took part in the 10th annual Head Shave for Cancer event, which aimed to raise $10,000 for the Alberta Cancer Foundation. The crew surpassed their fundraising goal by midday.
“We originally started this philanthropy event because one of our members was diagnosed with cancer,” said Brett Sauder from FarmHouse. “So we thought this would be a good way to give back.”
Sauder said even though the member who had testicular cancer attended the U of A well before his own university career, it’s a story that hits home for current FarmHouse members.
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“Everyone has someone in their life that has been affected by cancer, or who has cancer,” he said.
The group raised money by allowing other students to dye their hair in bright colours earlier this week, and also by selling rights to operate the clippers at Friday’s event.
“We’ve gotten some looks, just people walking by in the hallway, and earlier this week we dyed our hair, just to try and raise a bit more money. So yeah, we’ve gotten quite a bit of attention I think,” Sauder said.
Since the event began, Sauder estimates the FarmHouse Fraternity has raised $100,000 for cancer research.